Temporary Fix Expedites Lockport Lock Reopening

Corps of Engineers crews have completed installation of an innovative temporary solution designed to return Lockport Lock and Dam to operation more quickly.

Experts from the Corps of Engineers Research and Development Center (ERDC) joined the Chicago and Rock Island districts’ team at the lock on March 14 and 15 to secure a carbon fiber reinforced polymer wrap around a cracked pintle socket. Pintles act as the “hinges” on which the lock’s lower miter gates swing open and closed.

ERDC was also involved in attaching strain gages on the pintle castings and gates March 17 so that engineers can monitor the repairs’ performance, according to Mike Walsh, chief of the Chicago Engineer District’s Waterways Project Office.

Walsh provided the update on repairs to the Illinois River Carriers’ Association during a videoconference call for industry stakeholders March 17.

“Last week we had a lot of really good progress,” he said. “The concrete placement on the sills and the vertical gate slots was mostly complete. The team was able to blast and prep that pintle casting. They got the CFRP wrap applied on Friday and Saturday.”

The team also continued machinery pit electric rehabilitation.

A key planned next step was to refit the quoin blocks, where the miter gates touch the lock wall when closed, re-establishing contact between the gate and wall so that when the lock chamber fills or empties, the pressure of the water is distributed throughout the entire lock and not solely on the gates. Engineers believe the faulty quoin gaps caused too much pressure against the gates, cracking the components.

Walsh said he expected that upper bulkheads would be removed by the end of the week, allowing the chamber to be rewatered and new vertical lift gates to be set in their slots.

“Once they get the upper bulkheads out, they’ll get the new gates slid down into the slots, and then we’ll reset the upper bulkheads to be able to do the final fit-up and sealing on those upper gates,” he said. “So, as long as the gates go in fairly well, we should be good to go. We are still on track for [reopening] April 4.”

Damage to the lower miter gates at the facility at Illinois River Mile 291 was discovered during a February dewatering scheduled for work on the lock’s upper miter gates. Those repairs were initially anticipated to take place January 28 through March 28. After finding cracks in the pintle area of the lower gates, the Corps of Engineers initially said repairs could delay the lock’s reopening until late April or early May. The new temporary repair allows it to open with an extension of only 10 days from the original schedule.

Permanent repairs to the lower miter gates will require installation of new pintle castings. That work is anticipated to require another closing of five to six weeks’ duration in late fall or early winter, Walsh said.

“A lot of that is going to be dependent on the fabrication timeline of the new pintle castings,” he said.

He added that the team, with assistance from the Corps’ Inland Navigation Design Center, is making a few design modifications that will involve making the new pintle sockets “a little more robust.” The design also adds additional supports to aid in preventing cracking in the future, he said. That design could take another three to four weeks to complete.

The fabrication timeline for the new pintle castings ranges from four to seven months, depending on whether the pintles are cast or machined and on which shop will complete that work, he said, adding that he hopes to have more precise timeline information once those determinations are made.

Lockport Navigation Restrictions

Walsh also detailed navigation restrictions that will remain in place at Lockport until permanent repairs are made. Those include a 90-foot width restriction for all tows.

Additionally, while three-piece unit tows locking as a setover are permitted northbound, southbound three-piece unit tows cannot be accommodated without the use of an industry provided assist boat to keep the long string off the left descending gate.

Vessels will be locked together whenever possible to minimize filling and emptying the lock, but not if that requires a tow to shove out against the left descending gate, which is the more damaged gate, Walsh said. The lock will instead utilize the right descending wall as much as possible. Recreational vessels are being encouraged to transit the lock in groups.

Lock operators will note any instances of rubbing or impacts to the gates so that information can be correlated with instrumentation monitoring stress on them.

Brandon Road Interbasin Project

IRCA Chairman Terry Bass said he talked to the team working at Brandon Road Lock and Dam on the Des Plaines River, Mile 285.9, about continuing site preparation work there while the Lockport Lock remains closed the additional 10 days. Unlike some other waterways, the Illinois Waterway does not have auxiliary locks, so one lock closing halts traffic along the length of the waterway. Completing more work now at Brandon Road could mean fewer closures at Brandon Road once the Lockport lock is back open.

While some construction is ongoing at Brandon Road, including the excavation of bedrock from the lower channel, the state of Illinois has postponed closing on property needed for the Brandon Road Interbasin Project because of fears that $117 million in federal funding for the project won’t be received, according to a February letter to the Corps from Natalie Phelps Finnie, director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

Phelps Finnie said in the letter that IDNR will delay turning over property for the project to the Corps until May at the earliest while state officials seek written confirmation that the federal funding will be received as outlined in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Water Resources Development Act of 2024. Substantial technology installation at the site has also been halted, according to the Rock Island Engineer District.

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Featured Photo caption: Ryan Randall and Rusty Stamann apply a carbon fiber reinforced polymer wrap to the pintle casting of one of the Lockport Lock’s lower miter gates. (Photo by Kathy Sitko/Chicago Engineer District)