Contractors working at the Chickamauga Lock are installing three tower cranes this summer to help deliver concrete and other equipment to build a new and bigger replacement lock on the Tennessee River.
Adam Walker, the project manager for the Army Corps of Engineers project at the Chickamauga Dam, said an 1,100-foot-long conveyor system will be installed to bring the concrete made in the batch plant set up on the north side of the river to the lock chamber in the river. The cement will form the 50-foot wide concrete walls at the base of the new lock.
“We hope to have some of the concrete placements for the new lock by July or August,” Walker said.
“The options we have in place now with our available funding will take us to December of 2020. All total, we hope to have all of the concrete work and walls in place by May 2023, if we get the available funding to exercise all of our options.”
A car carrier passes atop the Wilkes T. Thrasher Bridge midday Tuesday, two men work high above the site at Chickamauga Lock securing a crane tower to be used in the construction of the new water gateway at Chickamauga Dam.Three giant cranes, including two being put in place in or near the new lock being built below the dam in the river, are being erected by AECOM Construction Services, the contractor hired to build the new 600-foot-by-110-foot lock chamber.