About: Mike Caswell

Recent Posts by Mike Caswell

A Comparison with The Netherlands

A Comparison with The Netherlands
It was pointed out a while ago that The Netherlands had many more canals and dams than we have on The Erie Canal, and consequently, they have more experience. So, lets look at the facts here. See http://dutchdikes.net for more details The Netherlands’ dike network extends for over 22,000 kilometres (including dikes that do not serve as…
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Is it an Embankment, a Dam, a Levee, a Ditch or Dike?

Is it an Embankment, a Dam, a Levee, a Ditch or Dike?
If you check your favorite dictionary, you’ll find a tremendous overlap in the terminology, so here we’ll define the different aspects for the sake of this discussion. A DAM is a length of the canal where one side is constructed to contain the water over a low level area.  You could call it an embankment or…
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The Embankment Dam Phreatic Line – Where the water goes.

The Embankment Dam Phreatic Line – Where the water goes.
Earthen Embankment Dams are made to hold back water.. but only to a point. It's a well known fact that ALL earthen dams leak to some extent. There is a well defined line of saturated earth that runs from inside the dam at the edge of the water to the outside of the dam, at…
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A Chinese Boat project on the NY Erie Canal

A Chinese Boat project on the NY Erie Canal
After a 'bucket list' vacation to China, where my wife and I enjoyed a 'river raft' excursion down the Li river near Guilin, I decided to build a raft to use on the Erie Canal. Here is a video using local slave labor (neighbor's children) located at The Oxbow in Fairport. https://youtu.be/e9Qv3Pe63Vs [embed]https://youtu.be/KHfcdJundZY[/embed] It was…
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