Chickamauga Lock Contract Canceled

The Nashville Engineer District announced May 8 that it has terminated a contract with Shimmick Construction, based in Irvine, Calif., to construct the lock chamber at the Chickamauga Lock Replacement Project.

The project, at Tennessee River Mile 471 in Chattanooga, Tenn., involves replacing the antiquated and structurally deficient 60-by-360-foot lock with a new 110- by 600-foot lock. An alkali-aggregate reaction in the concrete of the original lock is causing concrete to expand and crack.

“This decisive action is necessary to get the project back on track and protect taxpayer dollars,” the district said in its announcement.

The Chattanooga Time Free Press newspaper reported after reviewing documents stemming from the dispute that the contractor blamed the COVID-19 pandemic for delays and cost overruns, specifically citing a workforce that Shimmick said largely refused to wear masks or receive COVID vaccines. Shimmick Construction did not immediately respond to a request by The Waterways Journal for comment.

U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, a Republican representing Tennessee’s 3rd Congressional District, said earlier this year that the contractor’s concrete pours were “inept,” and that there were “a plethora of problems.”

The Nashville District said the decision to terminate the contract amounts to holding the contractor responsible “for failure to prosecute the workd with diligence, maintain project schedule, progress critical work, correct quality deficiencies and manager project controls.”

“The Nashville District actively collaborated with SCCI to improve efficiency of their execution and overall delivery of contractual obligations,” the announcement stated. “Despite these efforts, the contractor’s inability to meet contractual obligations resulted in the government’s loss of confidence in their ability to perform the work required by the contract.”

The Nashville District framed the contract cancellation as necessary to mitigate costs and said the decision directly aligns with the Corps’ “Building Infrastructure, Not Paperwork” initiative, announced earlier this year.

“We are very proud of our team and the Nashville District for their leadership and professional management of the delivery of one of the nation’s critical infrastructure projects, the Chickamauga Lock Replacement Project,” Great Lakes and Ohio River Division Commander Col. Daniel Herlihy said. “Protecting the taxpayer’s investment requires having the right people overseeing our projects every single day. Our team recognized the root causes of this contractor’s delays and took decisive action. By terminating this contract, our USACE professionals enforced the high standards of accountability and efficiency the nation expects.”

The Corps of Engineers is exploring all contracting options to finish the remaining lock chamber construction, maintain the overall project timeline and to restore the lock to operation in 2028, according to the statement.

A second ongoing contract at the lock site is unaffected. In February, the Nashville Engineer District announced the base approach wall and decommissioning contract, meant to be the final contract for the project, had been awarded to C.J. Mahan Construction Company LLC of Urbancrest, Ohio, for just over $192.1 million. That contract includes the downstream approach walls, breaching the existing dam to connect the upstream approach to the new lock, bringing the new lock into operation and removing the cofferdam.

The Chickamauga Lock Replacement Project was authorized in 2003, with construction beginning the following year. Construction was suspended from 2012 to fiscal year 2015 due to funding restraints within the Inland Waterways Trust Fund.

The new lock will handle nine jumbo (35-foot by 195-foot) barges in one lockage, compared to one barge per lockage in the existing lock, an 80 percent increase in efficiency to the navigation industry.

Featured photo caption: An aerial photo of the Chickamauga Lock Replacement Project as of January 21. The Nashville Engineer District announced May 8 that it has canceled Shimmick Construction’s lock construction contract. (Photo by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)