The reported twister that swooped down near the Chickamauga Dam Tuesday night demolished a construction trailer used by the contractor building part of the new Chickamauga Lock and damaged some Army Corps of Engineers buildings at the dam, project director Wayne Huddleston said today.
But there were no injuries from the storm, and Corps employees are back on the job today. A 200-foot-tall construction crane below the dam was not hit, and a cement batch plant above the dam also was not damaged, Huddleston said.
“We’re making some roof repairs to keep the water out, but the dam and the lock are fine,” he said. “It appears it (the twister) hopped around after it came across the river.”
Contractor C.J. Mahan recently completed construction of a coffer dam within which a new and bigger lock at the dam will be erected. Water was being pumped out of the coffer dam this week, but Huddleston said the pumping was halted after the storm.
For complete details, see tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press.