News Articles on Chickamauga Lock

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Chattanooga Times Free Press

Alexander backs funding for continued lock work

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

By Dave Flessner, Staff Writer

Continued federal funding for a bigger, replacement lock at Chickamauga Dam is needed to help sustain river navigation, improve the region's economy and control air pollution, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said Monday.

During a tour of the 67-year-old lock on Monday, Sen. Alexander said that soon the crumbling lock no longer will be safe to operate, and it must be replaced. He defended the bigger replacement lock, noting that it should help keep 100,000 trucks off of Interstate 75 by allowing more cargo to be shipped by more fuel-efficient barge traffic on the river.

"We do need to get wasteful Washington spending under control, but spending to rebuild a lock that may have to be closed because it is dangerous is not wasteful," he said. "That's smart spending, because it increases jobs, reduces air pollution and increases safety. This is absolutely essential for East Tennessee and for our country."

For such spending on the lock to continue beyond this fall, however, Congress must approve spending bills for the fiscal year that began last week. President Bush also has threatened to veto some appropriations measures moving through Congress that he contends are too expensive and include too many pork projects.

Sen. Alexander, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee who helped write the Senate's version of the Energy and Water spending package, said the measure "keeps spending at an appropriate level, and I would hope that the president doesn't veto it."

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Chattanoogan

October 8, 2007

Alexander Visits Chickamauga Lock To Check Progress 

by Dana Wilbourn

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) was briefed onsite on Monday by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the progress of the new Chickamauga lock. Sen. Alexander said he was present for the groundbreaking in 2005 and just wanted to see if the project was staying on schedule.

“There are a lot of ways to talk about the importance of replacing the old Chickamauga lock as soon as we can,” said the senator. “One of the ways is to say that when we have the new Chickamauga lock we will remove 100,000 large trucks off of I-75 each year.”

Sen. Alexander said a second way to stress the importance of the new lock is the reduction in air pollution. “Chattanooga, Knoxville, and the Great Smokey Mountain region have problems with air pollution,” he said. “The more we have cargo going up and down the river, the less air pollution we will have.”

A third area of importance Sen. Alexander mentioned was jobs. “We will be able to have nine times as much cargo go through the new lock (compared to the old lock). That means that not just the Chattanooga area but all industry in East Tennessee will be impacted by the lock.”

Sen. Alexander also addressed a safety concern. He said the concrete of the current lock is expanding due to a condition known as aggregate concrete growth, leading to stability concerns throughout the structure. The concrete growth will continue to affect lock operations and could eventually result in the closure of the old lock, he said.

“We are keeping the old lock open as short a period of time as we can while building the new lock,” Sen. Alexander said. “My job as a member of the Senate and the Appropriations Committee along with Congressman Wamp (who is also on the Appropriations Committee) and with Sen. Bob Corker (who has a special interest because of his history as mayor of Chattanooga) is to make sure the project stays on schedule. I compliment the Corps of Engineers and TVA for doing a good job.”

The new Chickamauga lock is a $310 million project and is scheduled to open in 2010. It is anticipated that 4.3 million more tons of cargo could pass through the new lock annually.

The new lock will be 110 feet wide by 600 feet long. The current lock passes one barge through at a time and the new lock will pass nine barges through at a time.

Sen. Alexander worked with former Sen. Bill Frist and Congressman Wamp to get funds for the Chickamauga lock project included in the President’s budget beginning in Fiscal Year 2006. Since then, Sen. Alexander has worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to keep an aggressive maintenance schedule for the aging lock to prevent a shutdown of the old lock while the new lock is constructed.

Dana Wilbourn

dbwilbourn@yahoo.com

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Chattanooga Times Free Press

Monday, February 05, 2007

Lock funding likely on target

President to unveil the 2008 budget today while Congress works to finish funding plan for this year.

By Edward Lee Pitts Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Congress’ efforts to fund the federal government in its current fiscal year through one multibillion-dollar spending bill will not jeopardize the ongoing Chickamauga Lock replacement project, according to area lawmakers.

"There should not be a delay," said U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., of the $349 million project now slated to be completed in 2013. But efforts to build a new federal courthouse in Nashville and attach the name of former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., may be a casualty of Congress’ inability to pass its annual spending bills last year.

Lawmakers say they are hopeful President Bush’s budget for the 2008 fiscal year, to be unveiled today, will include the full $35 million projected to be needed in 2008 to keep the lock project on schedule.

"Budgets should definitely take into account projects that are under way," said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. "We need to make sure that when commitments have been made … that they are seen through."

Even though the president today will release his proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are finalizing federal spending funds for the current fiscal year — some four months late.

The House last week passed a $463.5 billion continuing resolution to pay for federal spending through the end of the fiscal year. Since Congress did not complete most of its appropriation bills last year, the resolution is required to avoid a partial government shutdown Feb. 15. The $463.5 billion measure now awaits Senate action.

The resolution does not allocate funds for specific projects; dollars are directed to specific agencies, such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which make allocations.

The Chickamauga lock project’s $27 million for fiscal 2007 was in President Bush’s budget released last year and was included in both House and Senate versions of the annual energy and water spending bills.

Since the project is under way and contracts are awarded, the Corps of Engineers is reluctant to cut the funds, said Wayne Huddleston, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers manager for the project.

"The priority of the Chickamauga Lock has been high enough to keep us from being affected by the continuing resolution," he said. "We’ve been cleared to go ahead with the full $27 million."

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E-mail Lee Pitts at lpitts@timesfreepress.com

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Chattanooga Times Free Press

Friday, June 30, 2006

Senate panel OKs lock funds

By Edward Lee Pitts Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — A Senate committee approved $27 million to fund the ongoing Chickamauga Lock replacement project for next fiscal year on Thursday, setting up an expected vote of the full Senate later this year.

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the annual energy and water spending bill for fiscal 2007, which includes funding for the continuation of the lock replacement project.

The full Senate is expected to act on the spending bill before Congress finishes its calendar year.

"Chickamauga Lock is critically important to economic development and job creation throughout East Tennessee, and I’m glad that it’s closer to becoming a reality," said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said he, Sen. Alexander and Reps. Zach Wamp and John Duncan, all R-Tenn., will continue their efforts to ensure the necessary resources are devoted to building a new Chickamauga Lock.

"Moving forward with construction is essential to the region’s transportation infrastructure," Sen. Frist said.

The House passed its version of the spending bill last month.

Rep. Wamp said he is optimistic the $27 million will not be changed in the bill’s final version because both the House and Senate versions have the same funding level for the lock project. The $318 million project is expected to be completed in 2013. The $27 million would be used to construct a temporary dam to provide a dry riverbed for workers to construct the new lock, according to Wayne Huddleston, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers manager for the project.

Workers are nearing the halfway point of completing the project’s initial phase, which is the relocation of Lake Resort Drive and two bridges near the lock, Mr. Huddleston said.

When finished, the new 110-by 600-foot lock would be able to hold nine barrages at once. The current deteriorating 65-year-old lock holds one barge at a time.

Some congressional watchdog groups, such as Citizens Against Government Waste, have criticized the project, labeling it as pork.

For the first time this year, President Bush included the money needed for the lock project in his annual budget request that was submitted in February.

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Chattanooga Times Free Press
November 21, 2004

Over $18 Million Approved For Chickamauga Lock

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WorkBoat Cover Story - July 2004 Cover Story Head Lock Neglect of locks and dams could result in a failure of the waterway system. By Pamela Glass, Washington Correspondent It’s 1907. There is no television. The Model T isn’t yet on the road. Oklahoma becomes the 46th U.S. state, and locks and dams are built along the lower Monongahela River in southwestern Pennsylvania. Fast forward to 1921. The U.S. ends World War I, declaring peace with Germany, Warren Harding takes over from Woodrow Wilson, and the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal lock in New Orleans is built. Jump ahead to 1930. Hostess Twinkies are invented, as are Scotch tape and the jet engine. The Great Depression begins, and locks and dams along the Upper Mississippi are built. Seventy-five years later, SUVs are the rage and high-speed Internet connects the world, yet many of America’s locks and dams still date back to the times just mentioned. More than half are over 50 years old and have outlived their economic design lives. From Illinois to Louisiana, from Pennsylvania to Kentucky, major segments of the nation’s inland waterways system are in desperate need of modernization, repair or maintenance to accommodate present and future waterborne traffic. The infrastructure, many say, could face a major collapse. LOWER MONONGAHELA LOCKS IN DISREPAIR A towboat pushing three hopper barges loaded with coal moves smoothly toward Lock 4 along the Lower Monongahela River near Charleroi, Pa., south of Pittsburgh. Within minutes, the towboat and its cargo disappear behind the mass of metal and concrete that makes up the lock’s chamber. Minutes later, the downstream gate opens and the tow pushes through and is on its way farther down river. For tows, movement through the Lower Monongahela this day is smooth and hassle free. But all is not well along the Lower Mon’s Locks and Dams 2, 3 and 4, the first three navigation projects on the river upstream of Pittsburgh. These locks, all located within 10-20 miles of each other, are in serious structural trouble. They are the three oldest operating navigation facilities on the Lower Mon. Lock and Dam 2 was completed in 1905, L&D 3 in 1907, and L&D 4 in 1932. They’re old and are on their last legs, crumbling after decades of use and little repair. The concrete on Lock 3’s chambers at Elizabeth, Pa., is cracked and deteriorating due to freezing and thawing. Things are so bad that some of the metal supports stick out, forcing towboats to take special care not to bump the edges and puncture a barge. The walls of Lock 3 and 4 are built on oak timbers driven into the river bottom. These antiquated foundations have exceeded their useful lives. Recent monitoring of these walls indicates a significant increase in movement because the timber piles are unable to resist differential water pressures acting on the walls. At times, this movement has been so severe that large barges have become pinched inside the lock chambers as the walls deflected inward due to water pressure. Lock 3 is among the oldest structures operating in the entire inland navigation system, and the most damaged among the nine facilities along the Monongahela. The Army Corps of Engineers says a failure is a strong possibility, which would severely curtail commercial navigation and recreational boating. Plans have been on the drawing boards since 1992 to modernize the Lower Mon system, but progress has been slow. Federal budget cuts have forced the construction timetable to slip. The project should have been finished this year, or soon thereafter. Now it won’t be done until 2020 at the earliest. Under the Corps’ “2 for 3” $750 million replacement project, the aging dam at Elizabeth would be removed. Lock 3 would also be removed, which will eliminate a bottleneck in which towboats must break up their tows — but only after the 70-year-old, undersized Lock 4, 18 miles away at Charleroi, is replaced with larger and more modern facilities. One key aspect of the project has been completed: construction of a new dam at Lock 2. The new $107 million gated Braddock Dam was floated into place last year. But the towing industry isn’t celebrating. They won’t enjoy the full benefits of the new dam until the entire project is completed. The Corps estimates that $870 million in benefits have already been lost to the navigation industry because of delays in completing the project. It will cost the industry an additional $10 million a year over what they have already paid for the delays, said William Karaffa, acting project manager for the Lower Mon. The costs of the delays must be figured into the pricing of towing services, according to Peter Stephaich, chairman and CEO of Campbell Transportation Co. Inc. in Charleroi. But what worries towing companies, he said, is the difficulty of predicting the unknown. “We’re most concerned about how [closures or slowdowns due to] unexpected, unscheduled maintenance will affect our operations,” he said. “The more we postpone [the project], the higher price we’ll have to pay for it.” The Corps says it needs between $60 million and $80 million a year to keep the project on an efficient schedule. But federal appropriations have been much less, dropping from $60 million to $37 million in fiscal 2004. The 2005 budget request contains only $30 million, which would put the project on a “constrained” schedule, according to the Corps. The Corps estimates that $60 million will have to be invested in the near future for lock repairs just to keep them operational until the entire project is finished. TIME BOMB “This valuable system is suffering from serious neglect,” the Inland Waterways Users Board said in its 2004 report to Congress and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “The nation is not making the necessary investments in the modernization of the system. We have been deferring maintenance for so many years that we are now experiencing serious structural failures.” A recent report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers on maintenance of U.S. infrastructure gave the U.S. navigable waterways system a grade of D+. “Demands on the waterways system are expected to double by 2020, while the current system can barely accommodate current traffic levels,” the report said. Some locks are in good shape, mostly along the Lower Mississippi and Ohio rivers. But a review of Corps documents and photos reveals a myriad of structural problems across the system. Some locks haven’t been painted in 25-30 years, contributing to corrosion of the steel; concrete is crumbling at Lower Monongahela River locks in Pennsylvania; there are cracks in the downstream middle wall leaf at the Greenup Lock on the Ohio River; there are serious leaks at the miter gates at Upper Miss Lock 19; and there’s concrete deterioration at the Chicamauga Lock on the Tennessee River that could result in lock failure. “We have a ticking time bomb here,” said Barry Palmer, president of the Waterways Council, an Arlington, Va.-based coalition of waterway users. “There’s increasing concern about a potential for failure of the system. It’s pretty scary.” Even top brass at the Corps readily admit that they have been given the impossible job of operating an antiquated and outmoded system and that the future is bleak without more funding to get renovations on a steady track. To respond to these challenges, the Corps is reorganizing, rethinking its funding priorities, and re-evaluating the way it works with the navigation industry and the way it reviews and finances projects. Here are some highlights of the inland system and the challenges faced by the Corps to keep it operational: • There are 25,000 miles of waterways and 275 lock chambers at 230 locations that move 2.4 billion tons of cargo a year. Forty-one of these locks are more than 100 years old; 142 are over 50 years old. • There are 12 construction projects currently underway (eight new or replacement locks, four major rehabs). Total cost is $5 billion. “But all of these projects will require much more robust funding in the future if they are to stay on the current construction schedules,” according to the Corps. • Funding shortfalls have caused delays of at least six years at Olmstead Locks and Dam, five at McAlpine, and nine at the Lower Monongahela. • The maintenance backlog is expected to hit $623 million this year, resulting in further wear and tear on lock chambers and channels that are in dire need of repair. • The Inland Waterways Trust Fund, which is financed by a diesel tax paid by barge operators, is supposed to be used for waterway improvements. Instead a surplus of nearly $400 million sits unused because Congress has failed to appropriate its share in a 50-50 cost-sharing arrangement. • Foreign trade volume, especially containerized freight, is expected to more than double by 2020, and inland waterway traffic may increase by a third. Consequences of maintaining the status quo are many. “Agricultural exports will be in peril,” according to the users board report. “Power costs will drastically increase, manufacturing costs for consumer durables and non-durables using chemicals and petrochemicals will increase dramatically, and the environment will suffer increased pollutants, noise and congestion” as river traffic moves to highway and rail. In addition, the economies of hundreds of river towns would be in jeopardy, as would the U.S. barge industry. America’s ability to compete against countries that continue to modernize and improve their river navigation systems would also suffer. Federal investment in water resources infrastructure has decreased 50 percent over the past 30 years and now stands at the same level it was around 1960, according to the National Waterways Conference. Today’s annual investment of $4 billion must keep a $150 billion system working, compared to an infrastructure that was valued at about $100 billion in 1980. “This system delivers 16 percent of all intercity freight that moves in the United States but accounts for only one-sixth of the spending on transportation,” said John Doyle, vice president of the Waterways Council. As a result, domestic water transportation capacity isn’t fully utilized and projects are often derailed or delayed by lack of federal funds and, in some cases, by environmental opposition or regulation. New projects aren’t getting authorized, and those authorized aren’t getting built. There’s a backlog of maintenance, which leads to unscheduled shutdowns for emergency repairs. And there’s congestion and queuing at key points of the system, especially during the grain harvest season, as tows must break up and reassemble in order to make it through 600-foot lock chambers. This costs time and money. MORE LOCK CLOSURES Perhaps one of the most troubling — and becoming all too frequent — developments for the navigation industry has been the unscheduled closure of locks and dams for emergency repairs. In 2002, a gate failure that closed the John Day lock along the Columbia River in Oregon took months to repair, causing major shipping delays. Emergency repairs often close Upper Mississippi locks, where over the past 12 years there has been one full year of downtime due to repairs. Recently, the Corps announced that urgent repairs are needed at the existing lock chamber at the McAlpine Locks and Dam on the Ohio River. This will force an emergency closure for two weeks in August to repair cracks that were found in one of the lock gates. The Corps is currently building a second 1,200-foot chamber at McAlpine. One of the most costly closures occurred last year at Greenup Locks and Dam near Portsmouth, Ohio. In September, a scheduled three-week closure of the main lock chamber for gate inspection and repair was extended to eight weeks because of the extensive damage found. Tows had to use the smaller auxiliary chamber. This produced an average tow delay of 38 hours, which cost the barge industry an estimated $14 million, according to the Corps. In addition, some power plants were caught without an adequate coal stockpile just as the heating season began. Some coal had to shift to rail or truck on short notice, which meant paying premium rates. MEMCO Barge Line’s river operations lost $1.3 million due to the closure, which translated into 135 boat days and 2,025 barge days lost. “We had four boats sit at Greenup for eight weeks, holding spaces in line,” said Mark Knoy, president of Chesterfield, Mo.-based MEMCO. “These are symptomatic of what’s happening throughout the waterway system,” explained Robert F. Vining, chief, programs management at the Corps. “This represents a long-term erosion in the navigation capacity of our system. We simply can’t handle the same volume of traffic as periods of closure increase in duration.” Reasons for this predicament are many. Part of the blame lies with the navigation industry itself: Until now, it hasn’t done a good enough job telling its story to lawmakers in Congress and to budget crunchers in the administration. Other factors have been beyond the industry’s control. Changes in Congress have placed many more lawmakers who are unfamiliar with the waterways in key decision-making positions, and a rise in the influence of the environmental movement has effectively stalled projects along the Upper Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. THE ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECT The strength of the environmental movement can’t be ignored, and it’s a development that has some in the industry scratching their heads: How can waterborne navigation be at odds with the environment when it is one of the most environmentally friendly modes of transportation? A coalition of environmental and taxpayer groups has been actively criticizing the Corps, urging Congress to reform the agency, cancel projects and cut or redirect its funds. Environmentalists worry that increasing demands and maintenance at ports and waterways could damage fragile estuaries, bays and fisheries. Environmental groups also question the need for expensive waterways projects when traffic levels on the inland navigation system have remained stagnant or even decreased. “The major challenge facing the inland waterway system is in decisions regarding what river segments should be maintained for commercial navigation — particularly given the maintenance backlog for important parts of the system and the distressed environmental condition of many of the waterways,” environmentalists wrote in “Crossroads,” a report released in March that was critical of the Corps. The National Wildlife Federation and Taxpayers for Common Sense charged in the report that the Corps wastes billions of dollars on water projects that harm the environment. They claim that the Corps consistently “cooks the books with bad economics, low-balls the environmental damage its projects will cause, relies on outdated approaches, lacks direction in its work and perpetuates wasteful federal subsidies.” Environmentalists have been especially critical of improvements to the Upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers. They charge that the Corps has exaggerated barge traffic estimates and failed to adequately explore alternatives to a $2.9 billion lock expansion. Despite these criticisms, senators from Illinois, Missouri and Iowa introduced legislation in late May to begin preliminary engineering and design for seven new, 1,200-foot locks, the first phase of a long-term plan for expanding the Upper Miss and Illinois. The health of the inland river navigation system is interdependent on the health of every lock and dam. A major failure on the Upper Miss would be felt as far away as New Orleans. “We’re worried that things will get worse as traffic grows and the system matures,” said Joseph Pyne, president and CEO of Kirby Corp., Houston, the nation’s largest operator of inland tank barges and towboats. “A catastrophic event in locks up river will shut those bodies of water down and would devastate the economy, as the system is all interconnected.” But finding the money to address all the expensive needs of the inland waterways system is a real problem. “Congressmen keep telling us that there is just no money,” said Knoy of MEMCO, who spends time each month in Washington lobbying lawmakers for more funds. “Maybe what we need is a real crisis — like a blackout when a utility runs out of coal because it couldn’t get its supply from the river. That might get their attention in Washington.” back to top

A top official of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Tuesday the crumbling Chickamauga Lock needs to be replaced.
   But after touring the 64-year lock in Chattanooga, Army Assistant Secretary John Paul Woodley Jr. said the Corps of Engineers and Bush administration budget officials still are studying how to pay the estimated $315 million cost of the replacement lock.
   The president's budget for fiscal 2005 does not recommend additional funding for the Chickamauga lock despite its deterioration from "concrete growth" in the lock chambers.
   "This facility is a very important part of the system that we maintain on the Tennessee (River) and across the nation," Mr. Woodley said.
   Mr. Woodley said, "There has not been any step backward" in the construction of a new lock. But he said the president's wartime budget "is very frugal" for civil engineering projects by the Corps.
   Two East Tennessee members of Congress with oversight of the Army Corps of Engineers vowed Tuesday to gain additional funding for a new Chickamauga lock. U.S. Reps. John Duncan Jr., R-Tenn., and Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., pledged to work to get the Corps another $13.5 million in fiscal 2005 to continue the design and start construction work on a new lock.
   "The president's budget doesn't fund the government," said Rep. Wamp, a member of the House appropriations committee. "The Congress funds the government. We're disappointed that the president's budget didn't fund the request for additional funding for his lock, but that is not the final word."
   Engineers for the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the lock, and the Army Corps, which operates the lock, estimate that by 2010 problems in the existing lock could force its closure. Since it opened in 1940, the Chickamauga Lock chamber has shifted four inches because of "concrete growth" problems caused by the mixture of river water and the rock aggregate used to make the cement walls, Mr. Woodley said.
   The lock will temporarily shut down in July for three weeks of repairs. If it continues to deteriorate and is not replaced, it could be forced to shut down permanently within six years. That would cut off 318 miles of navigable river upstream of Chattanooga.
   Rep. Duncan, the chairman of the House Water Resources and Environment subcommittee, pledged to gain funding for the larger replacement lock by 2010. "While this is potentially one of the biggest construction projects ever for Chattanooga, it's probably more important for my district and others upstream," the Knoxville Republican said. "If even half of the traffic that is handled by this lock had to be put on the interstate highway, it would add 45,000 tractor trailer trucks to the highways of East Tennessee and even more as the economy expands as we hope it will."
   With additional funding, Corps civil engineer Wayne Huddleston said preliminary construction work to reroute Lake Resort Drive near the lock could begin within the year.
   E-mail Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com

Lock at a glance Existing lock was built in 1940 and is 60 feet by 360 feet.   The lock suffers from "concrete growth" caused by the mixture of rock and river water.   The proposed replacement lock would be 110 feet by 600 feet and cost an estimated $315 million to build.

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Chattanooga Times Free Press
April 28, 2004

Repair schedule for Chickamauga Lock rests on funding

By Bill Poovey, Associated Press

CHATTANOOGA - The chief of the Corps of Engineers toured a cracking lock on the Tennessee River with two Republican congressmen disappointed that President Bush did not request 2005 budget money toward a replacement.

After the private tour, John Paul Woodley Jr., the assistant secretary of the Army in charge of the corps, agreed the 67-year-old Chickamauga Lock needs replacing. But he declined to say when he would recommend funding for it.

While design work started in 2004 on the projected $315 million replacement, the construction schedule depends on funding.

Woodley said the lock - 60 feet wide and 360 feet long - can be maintained to operate at least through 2010 and beyond before it is replaced with a 110-foot by 600-foot structure.

Speaking to reporters with U.S. Reps. John Duncan Jr. of Knoxville and Zach Wamp of Chattanooga, Woodley said the tour showed the need for completing an analysis at the "earliest possible time" to support a funding recommendation.

The lock, which opened 13 miles upstream from Chattanooga in 1937 and accommodates boat traffic for 181 miles upstream to Knoxville, is deteriorating because of "concrete growth" from calcium and lime in rocks that were used. Studies show the lock could become inoperable as soon as 2010.

"There's a lot of cracks and a lot of water comes through," said Eugene Hixon, a corps mechanic. "It has grown 8 inches longer."

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Wamp pushed to get $7.8 million for the aging lock in a spending bill this year.

While Woodley said it is too late for him to seek any change in the Bush administration's pending $4.2 trillion budget request, Wamp predicted that he, Duncan and Frist would be able to secure funding soon.

Woodley said the prospect of him recommending funds for a replacement in 2006 was "still under review."

Duncan said the Chickamauga Lock "directly affects" 36 congressional districts.

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Chattanoogan
April 28, 2004

Wamp Says Army Official Sees Need For Lock Work

Rep. Zach Wamp said a tour of the deteriorating Chickamauga Lock by U.S. Army Assistant Secretary John Paul Woodley on Tuesday caused him to see the need for federal funding for the expensive project.

Rep. Wamp said Asst. Sec. Woodley said he would do all in his power to see that the project is in the President's budget for next year.

It was not in the Bush budget this year, but Rep. Wamp said Congress is committed anyway to including $13.5 million of first-year funding for the lock work.

He said it is important next year that $25 million for the project be part of the Bush budget. He said it is "much easier" if it is in the administration recommendation.

Rep. Wamp and Rep. John Duncan led the Army official on a tour of the lock.

It was the first time the Army official had seen the lock, Rep. Wamp said.

Officials say not fixing the lock would put a bottleneck on important river transportation.