Chickamauga Lock Shut Down For 3 Weeks For Emergency Gate Repair

  • Tuesday, October 28, 2014

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District closed Chickamauga Lock to all navigation traffic on Monday after a routine inspection revealed that the anchorage of the upper gate requires immediate repair.  The closure is expected to last approximately three weeks.

Chickamauga Lock is owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority but maintained and operated by the Nashville District.

Jeff Ross, Nashville District Navigation Branch chief, said the anchorage assembly has to be removed to allow for a more complete inspection of the area before repair plans are finalized. 

“The Corps will begin repairs as soon as possible after its evaluation is completed,” Mr. Ross said. “I am well aware of the impacts this closure has on commercial and recreational vessels moving up and down the Tennessee River.  We are moving as quickly as possible to address the situation.”

Questions about the status of the closure should be addressed to the Navigation Branch at 615-736-5607 or the Chickamauga lockmaster at 423-875-6230.

Congressional candidate Mary Headrick said the Chickamauga Lock "was unexpectedly shut down at approximately 5:00 pm Monday, three hours in advance of the District Three Congressional Debate in which Chuck Fleischmann proclaimed the success of his efforts to sustain the old Chickamauga Lock and fund the new lock."

Dr. Headrick said, “This is appalling on so many levels that it leaves one nearly speechless.

"While our current Representative quibbles trying to call a ‘barge diesel fuel tax' a 'user fee' so he won’t violate a pledge he made to outsiders, we in the 3rd District find ourselves with a broken and closed Chickamauga Lock.  There can be no commercial barge traffic, no recreational boats, and many boaters, like visiting Alabama football fans, are trapped with their boats on the wrong side of Lock. Over 200 miles of navigable commercial waters have been disrupted.  The impact of this is huge, both here and up and down river from here.  At the present moment, it is unclear if the numerous problems with the lock are able to be repaired in the proposed three weeks.

"The existing lock is way past its expected lifespan and is swelling and cracking due to failing concrete.  The engineers may be able to determine if this current closure is related to metal fatigue or is a metal to concrete interface issue, and they may be able to fabricate or repair metal parts of the gate that have failed.  We will certainly hope that this is the case, or the economic impact of this will escalate daily.  In any case, this should be a wake up call to force immediate and emergency funding to resume construction of the new, replacement Chickamauga lock.

"It shouldn't take years to formulate the $150 million/year funding.  It should take weeks.  I feel our current Representative does not understand the urgency of the Lock issue nor how to interact with others to achieve funding. Until very recently he opposed raising any revenue to pay for any improvements, even when those from whom this revenue would be raised were in favor of it.  As we all know, neither I-75 nor Hwy 58 nor our rail system, nor any combination of those three things, can handle the tens of millions of tons of cargo that needs to be moved.

“I am not exactly sure what it is that our representative feels he did to save our Lock and keep this water route – the Tennessee River to the Ohio River to the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico – open, since he neither sponsored nor co-sponsored any legislation to do so.  He will tell you that he “introduced” legislation.  All that means in this case is that he got to stand up and read a bill someone else wrote, and after his four years in Congress, this is what we’ve got – a broken lock, which even if repaired, would still be woefully inadequate.  This is where Congressional gridlock leads - to a closed Chickamauga Lock.”

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