The replacement of Chickamauga Lock should get another $29 million in fiscal 2016 under the omnibus funding bill up for a vote in Congress this week.
U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who leads the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, said money slated for the new lock in the Omnibus Appropriations bill should allow construction of the new lock to continue. The project, which ran out of funding three years ago, got a limited $3 million of funding in fiscal 2015 to help the Army Corps of Engineers plan for actual construction work to resume at the stalled lock in early 2016.
U.S. Congressman Chuck FleischmannU.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Ten., who serves on the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, said the bill builds on previous efforts.
"This year's Energy and Water Appropriations bill marks another great step for our Inland Waterways Trust Fund projects and Chickamauga Lock," Fleischmann said in a statement today. "Thanks to work previously done to restructure the Inland Waterways Trust Fund and the increase in the Trust's funding there should be enough money to continue work on the Chickamauga Lock that was started earlier this year."
Alexander said based on estimates for the top Inland Waterways Trust Fund priorities, "there should be $29 million available to continue construction on Chickamauga Lock, which is the fourth priority in the list of projects Congress agreed upon."
"This is the second year that the Energy and Water Appropriations bill has fully funded the plan for inland waterways priorities, which is important for America's economy," Alexander said. "When you consider the new money that is raised by the fees the large barge companies voluntarily agreed to pay that are matched with taxpayers dollars if we continue this over a period of time, then we will have the kind of locks and dams that a great economy like ours needs."
The House and Senate are expected to vote on the Omnibus Appropriations bill later this week.
The new lock at the Chickamauga Dam will replace the existing 75-year-old lock, which is suffering from "concrete growth" and is too small to accommodate more than one barge at a time. The new and bigger lock is projected to end up costing $860 million and another five more years of construction to complete.
The Corps has already spent about $180 million on the replacement lock.