Barkley Lock Reopens As Kentucky Lock Faces October Outage

Barkley Lock on the Cumberland River reopened to commercial and recreational traffic at noon September 30 after nearly two months of dewatering, inspections and repairs, according to KBSI in Cape Girardeau, Mo., and Paducah, Ky.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) Nashville District closed the lock August 10 for miter gate, valve and concrete work. Navigation Notice LRN 26-15 Amendment 1, dated July 2, set the closure from August 10 through September 30 and directed traffic to Kentucky Lock and the Barkley Canal.

Operators reported as of October 5 that Barkley was processing traffic again, with Kentucky Lock scheduled to close for repairs October 13 through 20.

Work During The Dewatering

The Corps’ September 15 project update said more than 23.6 million tons of cargo moved through Barkley in the prior 12 months, including agricultural products, aggregate and fuel.

The district said the dewatering, supported by the Regional Rivers Repair Fleet’s Heavy Capacity Fleet, was the chamber’s first full dry inspection since 2015.

Jeff Neely, lockmaster at Barkley Lock, said crews welded repairs on the miter gates, upgraded maintenance platforms for culvert valve machinery and inspected splash-zone steel that corrodes under repeated wet and dry cycles.

Josh Garcia, a Nashville District maintenance engineer, said crews also inspected and repaired the filling and emptying valves that control gravity flow into and out of the chamber.

Clearing The Queue

With Barkley back in service, the Corps is coordinating traffic through Barkley and nearby Kentucky Lock on the Tennessee River to clear a backlog of vessels, KBSI reported October 2.

Barkley Lock sits at Cumberland River Mile 30.6 near Grand Rivers, Ky. Kentucky Lock is at Tennessee River Mile 22.4, about 2.6 miles away via the Barkley Canal that links the two rivers. During Barkley’s closure, tows used Kentucky Lock and the canal as the alternate route.

That concentration of traffic added delay at Kentucky Lock. The Waterways Journal reported September 25 that delays there were holding near 4.7 days per tow as of mid-September.

Caleb Skinner, supervisory navigation facility manager for the Nashville District, told industry on September conference calls that the Corps was considering routing upbound traffic through Kentucky Lock and downbound traffic through Barkley for about a week after the reopening to work down the queue.

Kentucky Lock Closure Next

Kentucky Lock’s October 13 to 20 closure, which operators report as a full closure for repairs, will shift pressure back onto Barkley and the canal link.

The lock is also still working around damage from a September 1 tow allision that struck a floating guard wall. WJ reported that the assist boat mv. Emma Kate has been helping commercial tows keep clear of the damaged wall.

Patrick DiNicola, chief of the Nashville District maintenance section, said in September briefings that temporary measures would come first on the guard wall. Permanent repairs would follow under a contracting package still being developed with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which owns Tennessee River locks and dams.

DiNicola said the district commander had made restoring Kentucky Lock a top priority.

Recreational boaters have been advised to expect further delays under commercial priority and possible scheduled recreational lockages if the backlog grows.

For operators on the Lower Cumberland, Tennessee and Ohio rivers, Barkley’s return eases immediate congestion, but the mid-October Kentucky outage will briefly reverse that relief.

Dispatchers are also watching Upper Mississippi rain forecasts for the week of October 5, which operators said could raise stages there even as Cumberland and Tennessee traffic rebalances.

Kentucky Lock Addition Project

While the existing Kentucky Lock works through near-term repairs, construction of a larger chamber at the site is advancing. Contractor Thalle Construction Company has passed 3 million labor hours without a lost-time accident on the Kentucky Lock Addition Project, the Nashville District said in an October 5 release.

The Pittsburgh and Nashville districts jointly manage construction and safety on the project. With Thalle, they are building a new lock chamber 1,200 feet long and 110 feet wide, 22 miles upstream from the Tennessee River’s confluence with the lower Ohio River.

Wendy Shaw, project manager with the Pittsburgh District, said the chamber requires 51 monoliths and an estimated 375,000 cubic yards of concrete. As of September, Thalle had placed about 85 percent, or 316,000 cubic yards in 1,036 placements, leaving 199 placements and 58,900 cubic yards.

Corps leaders marked the milestone September 30 at a contractor-hosted safety standdown and luncheon. Col. Albert Butler, then acting commander of the Pittsburgh District, spoke alongside Lt. Col. Guillermo Guandique, Nashville District commander.

“Delivering a safe and quality project for the American people is huge,” Butler said.

“The value of a high performing safety culture is that it supports project delivery and protects the work force, avoiding potential schedule interruptions from significant mishaps,” said Jeremiah Manning, resident engineer for the project.

“Something like this doesn’t happen by chance or by accident,” said Steve Kohler, president and chief operating officer of Thalle Construction. “It’s one decision at a time. It’s one shift at a time.”

The project’s Corps safety team also received this year’s Nashville District Engineering and Construction Division Health and Safety Award, presented September 30 by division chief Martin Regner. The release said the team carried on after the death of lead safety specialist Chris Byrne, who shares in the recognition.