Money runs out for Chickamauga Dam project

After seven years of construction, federal funding for one of Chattanooga’s biggest building projects has been shut off before work is even half completed.

Within the next couple of months, work will halt on the $630 million effort to replace and enlarge the crumbling Chickamauga lock on the Tennessee River.

To revive the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project and retain a channel for river commerce in East Tennessee, Congress must revamp how such projects are financed and buck political pressure against extra federal spending.

The Tennessee Valley Authority owns the dam and the lock, which is operated by the corps.

Cline Jones, executive director of a trade group of commercial river users — the Tennessee Valley River Association — worries that inaction could delay completion of the new lock beyond the useful life of the 70-year-old original. If that happens, 318 miles of navigable river above Chattanooga will be shut off.

“We’re absolutely devastated we haven’t been able to resolve this problem this year, and we can’t get anybody at TVA or the corps to tell us how much longer the older, existing lock can continue to safely operate,” he said. “We’re living on borrowed time.”

Political support for major federal projects such as the Chickamauga Lock could weaken next year with a more fiscally conservative Congress and the departure of U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., from the key House Appropriations Committee. The Chattanooga Republican has pushed the Chickamauga lock replacement as his top legislative priority.

But U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Republican Caucus and a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, insists he will continue to work to get the new lock completed.

“It would be shortsighted for the United States to allow the lock to close,” he said. “That would hurt not just Chattanooga, but all of East Tennessee because of the jobs it would threaten and the additional traffic it would create on I-75.”

Every 15-barge tow on the river is equal to 216 railcars or 1,050 tractor-trailers, according to the industry group American Waterways Operators. The cost of shipping on inland waterways is about two-thirds the cost of rail and 10 percent of the cost of truck delivery, according to American Waterways.

Running on empty

Since work began in 2003, the corps has spent about $190 million to reroute roads, build retaining walls below the dam and install a cofferdam to keep water out of the lock construction area, Project Director Wayne Huddleston said.

Nearly one-third of the money spent so far has came from the federal stimulus package, which helped sustain work after the Inland Waterways Trust Fund was largely depleted by bigger dam projects on the Ohio River.

Huddleston said the $58 million in stimulus funds used for the Chickamauga lock will continue to pay to fabricate gates, valves and approach walls for the lock. Those parts will be stored at other TVA facilities until funding is approved for the lock itself — the largest single contract for the project.

Workers for C.J. Mahan Construction Co. are pumping water out of the cofferdam and will test it for at least 30 days before allowing it to refill.

Then work will stop until more money is available, Huddleston said.

Escalating costs

In 2001, the corps initially estimated the lock’s cost at $268 million, but that estimate now has more than doubled to about $630 million.

“Most of that increase is due to inflation, but there are about $200 million of extra costs because of changes in design we determined we needed to make for more foundation support on the river bottom,” Huddleston said.

Costs also have escalated as the project waited for funding. With the money flow halted, for instance, the cement plant near the dam may be moved and would have to be replaced if and when work resumes.

“We need a more rational plan for rebuilding and repairing our locks and, if Congress were to adopt that plan, the Chickamauga lock would have a high priority and there would be enough money to do it,” Alexander said.

Political support

Those running to replace Wamp in the 3rd Congressional District also pledge to work to finish the Chickamauga lock.

Republican Chuck Fleischmann said he is “a steadfast supporter of the lock” and insists it is a critical federal responsibility to maintain river commerce despite the need to trim the overall budget.

“This lock is an example of how we have to fundamentally change the appropriations process, but this needs to be a priority,” he said.

Democrat John Wolfe said he would support using more federal funds to finish the lock, which he said “is a vital matter of interstate commerce” for much of the eastern half of the United States.

“It certainly would be less likely to be funded in a Republican Congress, whose members keep talking about cutting spending,” Wolfe said.

Need for liquidity

Critics say locks like the one at the Chickamauga Dam are examples of the Corps of Engineers’ cost overruns and subsidies to the river transport industry.

“The reason that the trust fund is exhausted is because the taxes paid by the barge industry didn’t go up as the costs of these projects did, and we certainly don’t need to do more to help one of the most heavily subsidized industries in America,” said Steve Ellis, a vice president for Taxpayers for Common Sense in Washington, D.C.

“Inland waterways are a very valuable part of our infrastructure,” Ellis said. “But considering we have a $1.3 trillion budget deficit, we have to sharpen our pencils and figure out how to save money somewhere.”

Former President George W. Bush proposed a fee for using river locks four years ago, but industry groups quickly shot down the idea. Nearly two dozen U.S. senators signed a letter opposing such charges.

But the barge industry agreed this year to support an increase in diesel fuel taxes to help pay for inland waterway improvements.

A proposal endorsed by the Inland Waterway Users Board calls for raising the fuel tax for barge operators from 20 cents a gallon to 29. The plan also calls for the federal government to pay for more dam and lock rehabilitation projects, including all the expenses for projects under $100 million.

The fuel tax generated about $85 million last year, but that tax and federal appropriations generate only a fraction of the estimated $7 billion expense to complete current corps projects, including the Chickamauga lock.

The corps is spending from $2 million to $3 million a year for “aggressive maintenance” of the existing lock. Originally, the corps and TVA estimated the current lock would last only until 2010. But with new anchoring devices and replaced gates and valves, the lock’s life has been extended indefinitely.

But those relying upon the lock for river transportation say they are eager for the new one to be finished.

Chattanooga businessman Henry Luken, who owns part of Christensen Shipyards, is building a $15 million warehouse in Vonore, Tenn., to expand his boat-building business. He said he will need the Chickamauga lock to float his product to other markets.

“With all that the government is spending money on, there surely should be funds for the government to maintain its own locks,” he said.