Lockport Lock to Reopen April 4 After Corps IDs Temporary Fix

The Lockport Lock and Dam on the Illinois River is scheduled to open April 4, weeks ahead of schedule, after the Corps of Engineers devised a method to expedite temporary repairs.

The repair plan, reviewed and approved by the Chicago Engineer District Commander on March 7, calls for a carbon fiber reinforced wrap to be placed around cracked pintle sockets to hold them together until new ones can be fabricated. The pintles are the hinges on which the gates open and closed.

Mike Walsh, chief of the Waterways Project Office for the Chicago Engineer District, presented the repair plan to industry stakeholders in a videoconference March 10. It also calls for correcting quoin block contacts believed to have put pressure on only the lock’s lower miter gates instead of the entire chamber. Strain gauges will monitor whether the temporary repairs are holding.

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 the damage to the lower gates, the Corps of Engineers initially said repairs could delay the reopening until late April or early May. The new temporary repair allows the lock to open with an extension of only 10 days from the original schedule, Walsh noted.

While the temporary repairs are in place, the Corps will implement a strict width restriction of 90 feet, Walsh said.

“We need to protect the gates as much as possible from any impacts or rubbing,” he said.

The width restriction should impact only about 10 percent of traffic moving through the lock, he said, as most tows transiting the lock are 70 feet wide or narrower to fit between bridge piers elsewhere on the system.

Lock personnel will require the use of bumpers and staying off the gates, especially the left descending gate.

Additionally, he said, it will be important to reduce lockages as much as possible, meaning boats may be asked to transit together, when possible.

Walsh said a Corps team modeled using the carbon fiber wrap and finalized testing March 6.

“The team is very confident that will get us until later this year when we can receive those new sockets,” he said, adding that the Corps does not expect the replacement pintle sockets to be on site until September. The Corps has previously used carbon fiber and other types of reinforced polymers for various types of repairs, he said.

A second lock closure to replace pintle components and perform permanent repairs should last four to six weeks and likely will take place in the late fall or winter, Walsh said. The Corps was working to coordinate that work with the availability of the Rock Island District’s Quad Cities II heavy-lift crane. He said the Corps is still sourcing the replacement parts and that cast or forged billets that would be machined down are the most likely replacements.

Repair crews spent the week working on the originally scheduled work to the upper miter gates, Walsh said. That included working on concrete placements on the supper sill. The upper left gate’s valve has already been rehabilitated and is back in service, he said. Crews are working on the upper right gate’s valve.

Work on the lower gates will begin soon, he said, with materials being gathered to work on them now.

Walsh also mentioned recent government restrictions on the use of Department of Defense travel cards, which the regional repair fleet uses to pay for hotels and other expenses.

“They are on travel, so any freezing or restrictions on those travel cards is going to have significant impacts on our schedule at Lockport,” he said.

He added that both the Chicago and Rock Island districts are working to receive exemptions that will allow the fleet to continue working at the lock.

“I will tell you our command is working at every level to try to get these exemptions in place, not only for our fleet here at Rockport but for our fleet working at Wilson,” Walsh said, naming the Tennessee River Lock in Alabama where emergency repairs are also underway.