Repairing the lock
Chickamauga Dam project should receive record funding in 2018
The U.S. Congress has agreed to boost funding for civil works projects by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers by more than 46 percent over what President Trump proposed for next year, helping to provide what could be a record high funding in 2019 for the ongoing work on the replacement lock at the Chickamauga Dam in Chattanooga.
For the first time in nearly a decade, the
Corps of Engineers, which operates and is upgrading the Chickamauga Lock on the Tennessee River, will begin its fiscal year Oct. 1 with an approved budget. Both the U.S. House and Senate voted this week on funding measures to provide the Corps’ Civil Works program $6.99 billion in fiscal 2019, up from the Administration’s request of $4.79 billion and the fourth consecutive budget increase for the agency.
“I worked hard to include up to $117.7 million to continue construction of Chickamauga Lock,” said U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, the Tennessee Republican who chairs the Senate Energy and Water Development panel that oversee the Corps of Engineers. “Boy Scouts shouldn’t get a merit badge for telling the truth, and senators shouldn’t get an award for passing an appropriations bill: that’s what we are supposed to do. But, it is worth noting that for the first time in nearly 10 years these appropriations bills are on time, and they are also within the budget.”
Earlier this year after months of budget extensions, Congress approved an omnibus spending measure that ultimately allocated $76.5 million in fiscal 2018 for work on the Chickamauga lock where officials are building a newer and bigger lock to replace the existing, crumbling lock that helps boats navigate between Chickamauga and Nickajack reservoirs.
Alexander said the extra funding for the Corps next year should allow for spending even more on the new lock, which will be quicker for handling major, multibarge shipments and will replace the existing 78-yearold, smaller lock suffering from “concrete growth” in its walls.
Adam Walker, the project manager for the Corps’ new Chickamauga Lock, said Friday the Corps has now spent about $231 million and completed an estimated 31 percent of the $757.7 million replacement lock project. After two years of rock excavation in the riverbed just below the dam, the Corps expects to soon complete the rock excavation work for the new and bigger lock.
Over the past two years, the Corps’ contractor, Heeter GeoTechnical, has dug down as much as 35 feet in the river bottom and removed more than 100,000 cubic yards of dirt and rock to prepare the new lock chamber under a $34.9 million contract.
“Any kind of construction work you do below ground in rock is uncertain, so we had to make a few changes but it has progressed pretty well and should be completed by November,” Walker said.
The next major contracted work will be to move ahead on building the lock chamber and walls that will form the new 110-foot by 600foot lock. So far, a new concrete batch plant has been put in place near the lock to make the concrete required for the new lock walls.
“We should be pouring concrete for the new lock by this time next year,” Walker said.
The Corps estimates it could efficiently spend about $77.7 million in the next year toward finishing the new Chickamauga Lock. With proper funding, the project could be finished by 2024, Walker said.
The Water Resources Council, an industry trade group for the barge industry, welcomed the extra funding next year for the Corps’ civil works projects and the completion of the biggest U.S. lock and dam project at the Olmsted dam on the Ohio River.
“With the dedication of the Olmsted Locks and Dam project last month, strong funding for the Corps in fiscal year 2019, and a potential final water resources development bill in 2018, the inland waterways’ many beneficiaries and the U.S. economy have much to celebrate,” WRC President Mike Toohey said. “I look forward to President Trump signing these bills into law.”
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@ timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6340