If you live along the banks of the Mohawk River, you might be familiar with The New York State Canal Corporation’s ice breaking efforts. WAMC spent a day aboard the organization’s newest ice breaking tool that’s keeping communities above water.
That’s the sound of twin 750 horsepower engines attached to two four-foot propellers – combined they generate upwards of 3,000 lbs. of torque.
That’s the sound of Don Reilly prepping the four-man crew of the Thomas X. Grasso, a new 65-foot boat added to the Canal Corporation’s fleet in July. It’s one of four to be added over the next several years under a $35 million contract – its sister ship, the Rome, has already been deployed in Utica.
And that is the sound of 100 tons of steel breaking through four inches of ice along a seven mile stretch of the Mohawk River.
The Grasso’s icy route begins at the river's Lock 7 in Niskayuna.
The vessel is accompanied by the Margot, a 200-ton tug boat, that steams ahead, creating a guiding path for the newer ship. While the Margot relies on its sheer weight to power through the ice, the Grosso's specialized bow is designed to lift the boat above the ice and drop it down.
“Less than an inch-and-a-half, it’s kind of a waste of time, we want it to develop thicker. If it’s more than six inches then it becomes difficult, almost impossible, and the Margot will have to ram, back up, ram, back up and it’ll take a very long time,” said Jeff Gritsavage.
That’s Jeff Gritsavage, he’s the Canal Corporation’s Eastern Region Water Management Engineer.
All winter, he’s been running models to determine the best time to go out and break the ice.
And it’s been a busy winter for the Grasso’s crew. Two years ago, they only made five ice breaking voyages. Last winter they made 20. This season they’re already above the 20-trip mark, and, at the end of February, Gritsavage predicts they’ve still got four more weeks before the ice fully breaks.
He says the conditions didn’t come as a surprise, however.
“That was maybe around the 3rd of December I said this is going to be an all-time winter. We could tell at that point. Maybe I sounded brilliant but it looked like it was going to be and it ended up playing out that way,” said Gritsavage.
It just happens that this particularly harsh winter coincided with the Grasso’s inaugural ice breaking season.
The boat comes with all sorts of bells and whistles – heated windows, three sets of controls, a line-launching rocket, and every sensor you could think of. It’s even got a Tug of the Year trophy from the Canal Corporation’s annual Tugboat Roundup in Waterford.
Captain Don Reilly said even with all the new tech, it hasn’t always been smooth sailing.
“It was kind of just my basic training running the boats. Like I said, it’s a little different when you’re trying to plow into stuff. But it’s kind of trial and error going through the ice. Seeing what the boat can do—the management says it’s really just crawl, walk, and run,” said Reilly.
The Canal Corporation has been running ice breaking operations for the past six winters to prevent flooding in communities along the Mohawk River.
“The water ends up picking up septic systems and pet waste and kinds of—so it’s not just like you’ve got a swimming pool in your basement that you can just go and get in your bathing suit and pump it out during warm weather. Flood waters are nasty, it’s brown sewage-ish water,” said Gritsavage.
One such community that’s benefitted from the ice breaking mission is Schenectady's Stockade neighborhood. The riverside historic district has been continuously inhabited for 300 years despite the constant flood risk.
“One year we had these huge, they were like sheets of ice they were a foot thick but they were shaped like a huge conference room table. A couple of them drifted up into the park and literally set themselves up, they looked like tables,” said Coleen Macaulay.
Coleen Macaulay has been living in the Stockade for five decades. She had been serving as the President of the Stockade Association until this past May.
“There’s 18 different entities along the river that can flood when we have a highwater event like Jumpin’ Jacks and some of the marinas and the homes over in Alplaus, their backyards all flood. Schenectady County Community College goes underwater, its big parking lot and baseball fields go under water,” said Macaulay.
While Macaulay is grateful for the ice breaking efforts, she’d also like to see the state invest in better canal way infrastructure to prevent flooding.
Back on the boat, Gritsavage says, for the time being, ice breaking voyages are the most cost-effective method to prevent winter flooding.
“One of the things they thought about was doing an inflatable dam, which is something that can be lowered at the Visscher Ferry Dam. But it’s cost prohibitive. Very expensive. It just makes more sense to go break it up with tug boats,” said Gritsavage.
