U.S. Rep Chuck Fleischmann, R-Ooltewah, said the contractor for the Chickamauga lock replacement, Shimmick Construction, made mistakes that contributed to cost overruns with the project.
“They were multiple,” Fleischmann said in a phone call. “Concrete pours were inept. Work delays. Just a plethora of problems. I would defer to the (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) and to the contractor on that because I never want to defame anybody, but they made mistakes and had cost overruns. … They’re making tremendous progress right now. Every time I go over there, it looks a lot better.”
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is in the home stretch of a 20-year effort to replace the lock, a chamber used to raise and lower vessels between different levels of the Tennessee River at the Chickamauga Dam.
The Waterways Council, a group comprised of shipping companies that rely on the inland water system, recently released a report on escalating costs for these kinds of projects, estimating that the final price tag of the Chickamauga lock would be about $1.57 billion. That’s nearly six times the $267 million that was initially authorized for the project in the 2004 budget year.