Water pours out of all 11 spillways at Chickamauga dam in this file photo.Most of us don’t often think about the Chickamauga Dam on the Tennessee River, except when we’re boating, swimming or fishing or when we drive across the bridge spanning the dam.
Of course, we enjoy the benefits of the Tennessee Valley Authority-generated electricity the dam helps provide.
The Chickamauga Dam lock was built in the 1940s. The aging lock is crumbling and very much needs to be replaced. The existing 360-foot by 60-foot lock is too small for today’s large barges. It also has structural concrete problems.
A new and expanded Chicka-mauga Lock is estimated to cost $693 million, and work could be finished by 2018, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
So far, $186 million has been spent on a bigger replacement lock.