Corps Of Engineers Plans Lock And Dam Work On Upper Ohio River

With six decades of modernizing its locks behind it, the Huntington District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is turning its attention to the dams.

First, though, it is planning a simultaneous closure and dewatering of the main locks at two dams on the Ohio River this summer.

Col. Jason Evers, commander of the Huntington District, said in a recent interview that the main locks at the Robert C. Byrd Locks and Dam at Mile 279.2 and the Willow Island Locks and Dam at Mile 161.7 will be dewatered for repairs this summer, probably in July, August and September. They will be dewatered at the same time to minimize the impact on navigation, he said.

Evers said the Huntington District has worked with the towing industry to coordinate the outages.

Consolidating the repair fleets of the Huntington, Louisville, Pittsburgh and Nashville districts allows the Corps to perform simultaneous dewaterings in the same district, Evers said.

The three navigation dams on the Kanawha River were built in the 1930s, with the Marmet Locks and Dam targeted for improvements.

Chuck Minsker, public affairs officer for the Huntington District, said the district has requested $700,000 to be funded in fiscal year 2021 via a construction general appropriation (not the operations and maintenance appropriation) to address and modernize agency technical review comments, economic analysis, and environmental compliance.  There is no projected construction funding requested at this time, as it would be dependent on final results from the major rehabilitation report, Minsker said.

Michael Keathley, chief of the district’s Programs and Project Management Branch, said the district is looking at the adequacy of all components of all three dams. For example, rollers are corroding, he said. As the Corps studies the dams, it will also look at what other industries benefit from the dams’ operation, he said.