Limited Cargo Traffic Resumes on Ohio River After Lock Break
CNN
27 September 2009
(CNN) -- A lock break occurred on the Ohio River near Warsaw, Kentucky,
on Sunday, stopping barge traffic for several hours as the Army Corps
of Engineers investigated. The lock break stopped traffic on the Ohio
River about 65 miles northeast of Louisville, Kentucky.
The lock break stopped traffic on the Ohio River about 65 miles
northeast of Louisville, Kentucky.
The incident involved structures, and there were no reports of injuries.
All traffic on the river was stopped in both directions at about 9 a.m.
ET, Corps spokesman Todd Hornback said. By 8 p.m., an auxiliary lock
was set up to start allowing the half-dozen blocked barges through.
"It's going to take more time, but we're keeping the river open
tonight," Hornback said.
The river is a major artery for commodities shipping, with more than 50
million tons of cargo passing through the affected area annually,
according to a waterways organization.
It was not known what caused the break at the Markland Locks and Dam.
Engineers were going to the site, about 65 miles northeast of
Louisville, Kentucky, Hornback said.
The lock's gates are 1,200 feet long and 110 feet wide. A smaller
auxiliary lock is 600 feet long and 110 feet wide. Video Watch traffic
backed up on Ohio River.
A lock is a section of a waterway, such as a river, that is closed off
with gates. Vessels in transit enter the lock and the water level is
raised or lowered in order to raise or lower the vessel to adjust to
elevation changes.
One of the broken portions is known as a miter gate, Hornback said. The
Corps of Engineers, on its Web site, says a miter gate "has two leaves
that provide a closure at one end of the lock." They are so named
because the two leaves meet at an angle pointing upstream and
resembling a miter joint, the Web site said, referring to a joint
meeting at a 45-degree angle, such as the corner of a picture frame.
A public policy organization, in a February 2008 report, graded the
locks' performance as a D, "based primarily upon risk of failure due to
unreliability of miter gates."
The federal government allocated $10.6 million to install new chamber
miter gates, according to Waterways Council Inc., which describes
itself as an organization "advocating a modern and well-maintained
national system of ports and inland waterways."
Hornback said the work was scheduled for 2011, adding that it's unclear
whether Sunday's break will speed that up.
"The risk is very high that a failure of the lock gates will occur,
forcing traffic through the auxiliary lock for an extended period,
causing huge delays and costs to the towing industry," the council said
in the report last year.
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Engineers hope to have the river back open as soon as possible,
Hornback said, but an exact time frame was not known.
Some 55 million tons of commodities pass through the Markland Locks
each year, according to the Waterways Council. The principal commodity
passing through Markland is coal, which fuels numerous electric power
plants along the Ohio River, and those plants typically stockpile only
about a 30-day supply, the council said.