Age Takes Toll on Busy Ohio River Locks, Dams
The problems of aging navigational infrastructure on the Ohio River
aren't going away.
The State Journal
7 March 2010
By Jim Ross
Both locks at the Greenup Locks and Dam on the Ohio River are open
again, but the problems of an aging navigation infrastructure aren't
going away.
The Greenup Locks and Dam is about 24 miles down the river from the Big
Sandy River, which forms the border between West Virginia and Kentucky.
It controls the river in the Kenova and Huntington areas, including the
busy harbor at the mouth of the Big Sandy. There, barges loaded with
coal and petroleum products are assembled into tows and delivered to
power plants and terminals up and down the Ohio River and its larger
tributaries.
The main lock at Greenup was closed to barge traffic on Jan. 27, when
an anchorage bar on one of the gates that allows boats into and out of
the locks snapped. The lock reopened on Tuesday, Feb. 23.
The closure was similar to one at the Markland Locks and Dam, also on
the Ohio, between Cincinnati and Louisville. There, a pump failure on
Sept. 27 caused problems that are still being addressed.
Mike Keathley, project manager at Greenup, said the locks there are
worn from excessive use. They were placed in service in the late 1950s.
The locks were designed for 50 years of life and are wearing out. He
likened the locks to a wire coat hanger that is continuously bent.
Sooner or later, it will break.
"We've known as indicated by recent closures and increased frequency of
closures here at Greenup that the project is in need of rehabilitation,
particularly the gates," Keathley said.
Spokesmen in all three Corps of Engineers districts that are
responsible for the Ohio and its tributaries said they have a backlog
of unfunded infrastructure needs. In some cases, such as at Greenup,
they are needed to keep traffic moving efficiently. In other cases,
such as the Montgomery Locks and Dam just inside the Pennsylvania state
line, it's to keep enough water in the river to support navigation and
to maintain water supplies for homes and industry.
Of 230 navigation locks and dams in the nation, Greenup is seventh in
terms of lockages and eighth in total tonnage. Last year, Greenup had
the busiest locks on the Ohio above Louisville. The Robert C. Byrd
Locks and Dam near Point Pleasant, was the next busiest. In terms of
cargo tonnage, the dams' traffic declined the farther upriver they were
from the Byrd locks. The Ohio River has seven dams along the West
Virginia riverfront.
For now, Greenup has the most maintenance problems because it is so
busy and because it is one of the oldest set of modern locks on the
Ohio. The locks at Greenup were placed around the same time the New
Cumberland Locks and Dam in the Northern Panhandle went into service.
But Greenup has almost twice as many lockages as New Cumberland, and it
handles more than twice the tonnage.
When the main lock at Greenup goes out of service, barge tows must use
the smaller lock. That creates a bottleneck on the river, causing
shipments of coal and other commodities to slow significantly.
A problem discovered at Greenup in 2003 prompted the Corps to increase
the frequency of inspections there from every five years to every three
years. Inspections in 2006 and 2009 found problems that needed to be
addressed. Nothing found in the inspections, though, indicated a
failure of the type that occurred there in January, he said.
Ten years ago, Congress authorized a project to extend the smaller lock
at Greenup to the same length as the main lock. However, Congress has
not funded the work. Even if money were made available today, the Corps
would need several years to design and build the lock extension, he
said.
While Greenup is the primary concern in the Huntington District,
problems at Montgomery and two other dams upstream of it are the main
concern in the Pittsburgh District, said Jeff Hawk, public affairs
officer.
The dam gates that hold back the river are severely corroded and carry
a high risk of failure, he said. A breakaway barge could crash into a
gate and destroy it, putting the dam's ability to hold back water into
jeopardy. As with other such needs along the Ohio, money is not yet
available to correct the problem in the long term, although short-term
fixes are being done, Hawk said.
The Louisville District has two old dams dating back to the 1920s. One
is near Paducah, Ky., and one is closer to the mouth of the Ohio. A new
locks and dam to replace them is under way, but only the locks have
been built. The dam itself is awaiting funding for construction.
Altogether, it's a $1.6 billion project, said Carol Labashosky, a
public affairs specialist for the Louisville District.
Another existing dam in the Louisville District -- the John T. Myers
Locks and Dam between Evansville, Ind., and Paducah -- is in line for
major rehabilitation and lock extension like Greenup. Also like
Greenup, that project is not yet funded.