School me on River Access Entrances

[Briar Lee]

A few years ago the Corps of Engineers and the Missouri Department of Conservation improved and beautified the river access to to the Missouri River at Jefferson City, on the north side of the river at what used to be Cedar City.

They named it Wilson Serenity Point in honor of my old friend and client Joe Wilson, who as a labor of love maintained that access for years and had an animal shelter there in an abandoned building, and fought the local authorities until they all came around to support Joe Wilson, and the people who just adored Joe and what he was trying to do.

There is now a beautiful access that’s used by boaters and kayakers and hikers, but today I noticed something I can’t explain or figure out why it’s there.

There is a concrete structure on the downriver (east) side of the access ramp with a big steel bar and two reinforced steel loops.

It must have something to do with launching or recovering boats.

If Joe Wilson was still with us he’d know, but does anyone else know why they’d go to the trouble to build this entrance structure?

 

[canucklehead]

That is typical park bench design these days, to prevent homeless people from sleeping on them and skateboarding.

 

[jpmcwjr]

And skateboarders.

Odd, though. I don't see a single van!

 

[alaskanpiper]

That’s the local community pommel horse, of course!

 

[RustiePyles CPG]

If you pull your boat/trailer alongside it you can step into the boat while it’s on the trailer without having to climb.

 

[Briar Lee]

There is zero homeless and crime in former Cedar City.

Since the flood of 1993 it’s a ghost town.

Cedar City, Missouri - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

There’s a camping area and the local government authority and state and federal governments have made what was about the poorest place you ever saw Missourians live into a huge park, with rest rooms, picnic tables, gardens, pavilions, ball fields, even a community garden where people raise vegetables.

The Jefferson City police and Callaway County deputies and Conservation Agents patrol night and day.

There are a series of river accesses on the Mississippi, Ohio and Missouri Rivers now just as beautiful as Cedar City. That entrance is part of that riverine navigation system.


There’s even a steel box drain bolted with stainless steel bolts on the boat ramp entrance. That steel beam is water table flat, secured by stainless bolts. It’s not something Joe Wilson built.

It sits in a flood plain.

My wife thinks the huge steel bar that’s bolted into the structure secures those two loops to be used as anchor points in a flood.

It might even somehow be a base for instruments used by the Corps of Engineers to measure bank erosion. They have lots of sensors on the bridge pillars.


I think it’s for people to climb in and out of boats on trailers, or maybe to secure a cable down to the river to winch up a trailer to the top.

As the little boy said it cost em plenty to build that there thing.

Why?

It’s 2,197 miles to Three Forks Montana. That is one of many structures just like it.

At the peak of Rome’s power, if those old Romans came back they would marvel at what we take for granted here today.

 

[niblicck]

Maybe to help someone that has a handicap in and out of the boat?

 

[Briar Lee]

Maybe to help someone that has a handicap in and out of the boat?

Ding ding ding the prize!!!

This is why I like this forum.

The person in the wheelchair is lifted on the platform, or maybe there’s a portable ramp designed for it.

There is a regulation ramp that goes from the boat to the steel beam and two loops.

The helper rolls them across and into the boat on a trailer.

Who thought of that, I wonder?

I’ll bet every access with that structure is marked on the river navigation maps. You could ramp grandma into the boat at Cedar City and your wife take the pickup and trailer a day’s journey upriver or down, and take grandma out after a day’s cruise.

What I love about this country, is we don’t leave anybody behind, if we can help it.

 

[Hillcrest]

I like the handicap access idea above. I was going to guess that since its located at approximately the highest flood stage (waterline) of that river, that it might be a dock for river rescue craft like Zodiak boats. Those are grab bars and would be useful for off loading rescuees and tying up emergency rafts.

 

[daveinlax]

I like the handicap access idea above. I was going to guess that since it’s located at approximately the highest flood stage (waterline) of that river, that it might be a dock for river rescue craft like Zodiak boats. Those are grab bars and would be useful for off loading rescuees and tying up emergency rafts.

We have ADA canoe/kayak access at some locations but I like your flood access idea. Might be able to find what is in Corps spec book.

 

[Hillcrest]

We have ADA canoe/kayak access at some locations but I like your flood access idea. Might be able to find what is in Corps spec book.

I can't find anything. I would probably just call them on the phone and ask !

Boat Ramps

 

[Briar Lee]

Thanks for that website:



That Cedar City access was engineered by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. It sits on a precise elevation with a huge steel beam pointing a precise compass point.

There’s a gauge on a bridge support across the river.




The water has been up close or above that structure in 1993 and 1995, but I promise it doesn’t get that high very often, and when it does it would not be safe to navigate the Missouri.

I think that huge steel beam is to protect the sides of boats from being chewed up by concrete.

A trailered boat would contact that beam at an angle,

It definitely is for a boat pilot exiting the river to climb off. That’s a two lane ramp. It no doubt was engineered for handicap standards.

Joe Wilson is smiling, somewhere.

 

[macaroni]

Interesting thread. Thnx