U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said Thursday he supports an industry recommendation to prioritize completion of the new Chickamauga Lock in Chattanooga.
During a Senate hearing, Sen. Alexander said he supports the recommendations of the Inland Waterways User Board to shift the costs of completing a new Olmsted Lock and Dam on the Ohio River to an entirely federally funded project.
That would free up more of the industry’s tax revenues required to match funding for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on projects such as the new Chickamauga Lock.
“Your recommendation has my full support, because it would help the Chickamauga Lock be completed by 2015,” Sen. Alexander told leaders of the Inland Waterway Users Board. “It would be unimaginable if we had to close the lock, which is a major transportation artery for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Nuclear Weapons National Security Complex at Oak Ridge and the Tennessee Valley Authority.”
Congress is considering higher taxes on the barge industry and other changes to the Water Resources Development Act to help ensure future funding for the Chickamauga and Kentucky locks on the Tennessee River, among other projects. Without changes, work on the Chickamauga Lock could be stalled later this year.
The Corps is building a new and bigger lock at the Chickamauga Dam to replace the crumbling lock built when the dam opened in the early 1940s.
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