Illinois Waterway Projects Scheduled For New Year
Two projects along the Illinois Waterway will advance during planned closures January 28 to March 25.
Vertical lift gates are being replaced at Lockport Lock and Dam, Illinois River Mile 291.1, which will be closed to navigation throughout the period. Work on the Brandon Road Interbasin Project to deter spread of invasive carp will begin during the same time, but Brandon Road Lock and Dam, Illinois River Mile 285.9, will be open to navigation traffic on weekends.
Lockport
Tom Heinold, chief of the operations division for the Rock Island District, is overseeing the Lockport work in coordination with the Chicago District. The Rock Island District took over maintenance at Lockport as the Chicago District no longer has its own heavy capacity fleet.
During the closure, crews will remove the main and guard gates at the upper end of the lock chamber. These gates are 29 feet tall and 114 feet wide, made of welded steel and recess into the floor of the riverbed when open. They date to 1986, when the lock switched from using counterweights to hydraulics to move them.
The replacement gates were manufactured in Tampa, Fla., and the closure for both the Lockport and Brandon Road work was pushed forward two weeks from January 14 to January 28 to keep them aligned because hurricanes Helene and Milton caused delays in fabricating the gates.
“Those gates are going to be blasted and painted here within the next couple of weeks, and then they will be sailing from Tampa up the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway as it connects to the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and on to the Illinois,” Heinold said.
The delay is not ideal, although the concern isn’t for the potential of spring rains and high water at the end of the consturction period. Instead, Heinold said, the concern is any delays caused by unusually cold weather or icy conditions that could slow delivery of the gates from Tampa along the river route.
Lack of available funding for gate fabrication, along with long lead time, meant the gates could not be replaced during four-month waterway closures in 2020 or 2023, Heinold said.
Additionally, he said, there was not another floating crane available at the time that could lift them as they were all being used at other sites.
Work on the main gate will be completed in the dry using the guard gate as a bulkhead. Work on the guard gate must be completed in the wet, and divers in the water will help ensure that it is aligned correctly, Heinold said.
Future work on the Illinois Waterway will include a major rehabilitation of the T.J. O’Brien Lock in the Chicago area that is not yet scheduled and will require closing to navigation, Heinold said. Additionally, he said, some machinery needs to be switched out at Dresden Island Lock and Dam, but he anticipated closures for that project would not take place before 2027.
Brandon Road
The Brandon Road Interbasin Project involves a multilayered approach to preventing the spread of invasive carp and other invasive species between the Great Lakes and the inland river system. Deterrents include a barge-clearing deterrent to remove small fish and debris in the box-rake junction between barges as well as bubbles, acoustic and electrical barriers along an engineered channel and a flushing lock system.
With a project partnership agreement signed between the Rock Island District and nonfederal partners Illinois and Michigan late last June, the project is moving forward. As part of a special clause in the Water Resources Development Act of 2022, it is begin paid 90 percent by the federal government and 10 percent by the states.
Andy Leichty, project manager, said that the district is negotiating a contract for rock excavation in the approach channel with a small business as part of the 8A program that allows accepting proposals from small businesses instead of a typical competitive bidding process. The contractor is expected to be named by the end of the calendar year.
The work beginning in January will remove 6 to 10 feet of rock from the bottom of the channel to allow for future installation of some of the technology to prevent the carp’s spread.
The schedule for completion allowed enough flexibility that, after consulting with the Illinois River Carriers’ Association, the district was able to offer the weekend openings for navigation traffic, Leichty said. The excavation is being completed in the wet, he said.
Leichty said he anticipates 12-hour closures in increments as construction of leading-edge deterrents, including the barge-clearing deterrent, bubbler and speakers, begins later in 2025. There could also be some length and width restrictions as crews work on the guidewall on the right descending bank, with placement and curing of concrete requiring 48-hour closures.
The district plans to award an architectural and engineering services contract in late fall 2025. That will help to refine the design, which is only at a 10 percent level for the electric deterrent, acoustic arrays and concrete work in the engineered channel, Leichty said. He noted that it is estimated to take another 1 ½ years before design of the flushing lock is completed.
