New lock takes shape at Chickamauga Dam

Nearly 70 years after President Franklin Roosevelt dedicated the Chickamauga Dam and Lock, the outline of a new and bigger lock is taking shape below the dam on the Tennessee River.

But the head of the $391 million lock replacement -- $70 million more than the original estimate -- said last week that the project is taking longer and costing more than originally forecast. With much of the available money for lock improvements being absorbed by a major project on the Ohio River, the new Chickamauga Lock probably won't be finished until 2014, at the earliest, project director Wayne Huddleston said.

The existing lock, which opened in 1940, is suffering from "concrete growth" caused by a chemical reaction between the river water and the rock used to build the lock. The Army Corps of Engineers, which is in charge of maintenance on the dam, must spend more than $2 million a year on extra anchors, support devices and engineering analyses to keep the crumbling lock in operation while a new 110-by-600-foot lock is built.

"The goal is to keep the current lock open long enough to finish the new and bigger lock," Mr. Huddleston told the Chattanooga Engineers Club last week.

An updated estimate of the cost of the new lock just released by the Office of Management and Budget is $70 million above the previous projection, mainly because of the extra four years or more expected for its completion.

"The Corps is managing money month to month right now because of the limits on the (Inland Waterway Users) Trust Fund," Mr. Huddleston said.

The Corps' lock projects usually are funded jointly with taxpayer money and matching tax collections from river users. For each gallon of diesel fuel they buy, barges that ply the inland waterways pay 20 cents into the Inland Waterway Users Trust Fund, which generates about $175 million annually.

Most of at money now is being absorbed by the Olmsted locks and dam project on the Ohio River, which are projected to cost nearly $2 billion and extend until 2021.

"There's a great strain on the money available for vital Corps projects like the Chickamauga Lock because of Olmsted right now," said Cline Jones, executive director for the Tennessee River Valley Association, which represents barge operators who use the Tennessee River.

"The Tennessee River and its locks are like a chain that is only as strong as its weakest link," Mr. Jones said. "The weak link right now is the Chickamauga Lock, and it's critical that we keep funding for that project."

If the lock was not replaced, 318 miles of navigable river would be cut off and more than 100,000 additional truck trips would be added on area highways, Mr. Jones said.

Since construction began on the project in 2003, the Corps has spent or budgeted nearly $100 million to design the new lock, reroute Lake Resort Drive, install most of the anchors for the retaining walls to the new lock and erect a cement plant to produce enough concrete for the new structure.

With help from Tennessee lawmakers and the federal stimulus plan, contracts for the enlarged lock chamber are expected to be issued by next June, Mr. Huddleston said.

The stimulus package provided another $57.5 million for the lock, including $25.5 million for valves, gates and bridges, $27 million to fabricate the new approach walls for the new lock and $5 million to complete the coffer dam to ready the site for the new lock, Mr. Huddleston said.

The House Appropriations Committee has recommended an extra $1 million for the lock project in fiscal 2010 under a measure backed by U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, a Republican in Tennessee's Third District, and U.S. Rep. Lincoln Davis, a Democrat who represents the Fourth District.