Carp Deterrent Project Advances At Brandon Road
A project to prevent the spread of invasive carp into the Great Lakes is moving forward at Brandon Road Lock and Dam on the Des Plaines River near Joliet, Ill., part of the Illinois Waterway.
“In July we finished the first construction contract,” said Jason Smith, senior project manager for the Brandon Road Interbasin Project. Smith took over responsibility for the project in January for the Rock Island District.
The $15.5 million contract, which involved site preparation and riverbed rock removal for the engineered channel, was awarded early last December and completed as a joint venture between Miami Marine and Michels Construction of Milwaukee, Wis.
The second contract involves so-called “leading edge deterrents,” including machinery that prevents the carp from hiding in spaces between the ends of barges in a tow, a bubble barrier in the lock approach that the fish don’t like to swim through and an underwater speaker system that projects noise. Contract solicitations for that phase were released in May with proposals accepted until the end of August. The district is now evaluating the proposals and hopes to select a contractor by the end of the year.
The contracts represent major steps forward in a project that has previously faced months of delays that have taken time to resolve. Those included reaching a funding cost-share agreement between Illinois and Michigan, who together are responsible for 10 percent of the cost; land acquisition and potential remediation at a site on the right descending bank that previously housed a coal-fired power plant; and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker requesting assurances from President Donald Trump’s administration that the White House remained committed to allocating federal funding for the project.
One site acquisition hurdle remains. The Corps continues to negotiate with a landowner for some upland acreage, Smith said. The target for concluding those negotiations is the end of this month.
Additional construction contracts are years from being let and will require some additional funding, he said.
The lock and dam has been identified as the critical pinch point where layered technologies could be used to stop invasive carp populations from moving into the Great Lakes, according to a news release from the Rock Island District. If the invasive carp become established in the Great Lakes, they could outcompete native species and greatly harm the ecosystems of the entire Great Lakes region and its fishing and boating industries, the district said.
Design Work Continues
A third contract, for the flushing lock and right descending bank property, is at the 50 percent design level, with design completion expected in fall 2026. Once complete, that contract could be awarded in spring 2027 with construction beginning shortly afterward, Smith said.
Design work on a fourth and final contract for completing the engineered channel construction, including the approach for the flushing lock, left descending bank, channel floor, an electrical invasive carp deterrent and support facilities building, is expected to begin in spring 2026, finished in spring 2028 and awarded in fall 2028.
“A two-year design horizon does account for those complexities,” Smith said. “Also, we have to get through 30, 60 and 90 percent design reviews. We have coordination with the Coast Guard and the navigation industry to make sure that what is being installed works not just for the construction but for the operations and maintenance.”
Navigation Impacts
Collaboration between the Corps, Coast Guard and navigation industry remains vital, he said. One recent example was a meeting the Rock Island District held with the Illinois River Carriers’ Association earlier in September to discuss a proposed work schedule and possible navigation impacts. Tentatively, Smith said, the group will meet again toward the end of November to continue that dialogue as a working group.
While the plans are still under discussion and not finalized, Smith said the next contract could have 12-hour and 24-hour closure periods periodically during weekdays.
Beginning in 2028, closures of up to 45 days once per year may be necessary for approximately four years, Smith said.
“We are going to need multiple closures,” he said. “It could be four years, but we’re trying to figure this out. We have looked at multiple ways of combining the project. That’s where we are welcoming and looking for industry input.”
In some cases, he said, it may be possible to restrict the size of vessels and tows transiting the lock in order to prevent a complete closure. However, he said, when work is taking place on the floor of the channel, it must be dewatered, and there is no auxiliary lock.
Funding Issues
The project was estimated in 2023 to cost $1.146 billion. Cost recertification will begin this fall with new figures expected next spring.
The project partnership agreement calls for $274 million in federal funding, including $226 million from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (also called the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) and $48 million from the fiscal year 2023 president’s budget, along with $114 million in state funding.
Out of that $274 million in federal funding, about $40 million has been obligated. The money appropriated to date is expected to cover the entirety of project design and construction of the first two contracts (but not the second two).
While accounted for in the 2023 cost estimate, roughly $575 million in additional funding will need to be appropriated by Congress in fiscal years 2027 and 2028 as part of an efficient funding strategy, Smith said. Smaller amounts of funding will be needed in 2029 through 2032.
“The big lift is really in 2027 and 2028 to get those contracts awarded,” he said.
Smith noted that in May Trump issued a presidential memorandum indicating his support for the project and directing agencies to operate at “maximum speed and efficiency” at the federal level to manage the threat of the invasive carp.
The non-federal sponsors, Illinois and Michigan, would need to provide $35 million each in 2027 and 2028.
Expected Completion Dates
The project will come online in phases, Smith said. Leading edge deterrents are expected to come online in summer 2028. The flushing lock would not be operational until fall 2031 at the earliest, he said. The engineered channel would be finished about a year later.
Planning for the project began in 2019. The original proposed partnership agreement was delivered to representatives from Illinois and Michigan in December 2022 to initiate negotiations, with an estimate that it would be finalized as soon as August 2023 and no later than December 2023. The project partnerships agreement was announced July 1, 2024. A notice of proposed settlement between the federal Environmental Protection Agency and Illinois Department of Natural Resources (DNR) was released December 9, 2024, the same day the first construction contract award was announced.
Smith said the complexities of the project have taken time. He noted that, while an electric barrier exists at Romeoville, Ill., and bubble and acoustic barriers at other locations, including Upper Mississippi Lock and Dam 19 in Keokuk, Iowa, those barriers have never been combined before, so it takes time to determine how best to integrate them while still preserving navigation.
Meanwhile, Smith said, one bit of good news is that monitoring has continued to indicate that no invasive carp have established a permanent presence in the Great Lakes.
Some tagged fish swam upriver to within miles of the Brandon Road facility during high-water conditions in early 2024, but they returned to lower pools as the water receded.
Smith also wanted to highlight the close coordination among local agencies, state agencies, including departments of natural resources, and federal agencies in overcoming obstacles and moving the project forward.
“We continue to have a strong partnership with the Corps of Engineers, both the Rock Island District as well as the Chicago District, the Illinois DNR and Michigan DNR,” he said. “We’re grateful for the partnership since the [project partnership agreement] has come forward, and we’ll continue to move forward and do great things for the next several years while the project is under construction.”
