Corps Urges Major Work on Locks and Dams in Pittsburgh
Washington PA Observer Reporter
6 May 2010
PITTSBURGH - Federal officials are again urging major work on the locks
and dams on Pittsburgh's three rivers.
The Army Corps of Engineers hosted a tour Friday of the Emsworth locks
to highlight preliminary study recommendations calling for complete
replacement of the chronically failing locks that channel boats around
three dams on the Ohio River northwest of Pittsburgh.
Millions of tons of coal, chemicals, metals and other cargo are shipped
annually on the water highway of the Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio
rivers. The locks are essentially water-driven elevators that lift and
lower boats so they can pass through dams, which control water levels
on the river enabling navigation.
With Emsworth partly out of service for repairs, it was taking towboats
15 or 16 hours to get their coal barges through, a process that
normally takes about two hours. Dave Sneberger, corps chief of locks
and dams, said a typical tow costs $500 per hour to operate.
"If you're sitting there 10 hours, $5,000 just went down the tubes," he
said. And such costs trickle down to consumers.
The Emsworth Locks and Dams were completed in 1922, and the next two
facilities downstream are not much younger.
"Analysis, modeling and inspections have shown the projects to be
extremely unreliable with high probabilities of failures that could
result in unscheduled closures of up to a year," the corps said in a
statement.
An Upper Ohio Navigation Study is to be completed in November 2011, but
financing and construction of new facilities could take another 20
years or more. And the cost is estimated at $2 billion, with another $1
billion to fix similar problems on the Monongahela River's locks and
dams.
With the main 600-foot-long and 110-foot-wide lock chamber at Emsworth
drained, it was possible Friday to descend to the dried-out river
floor, where crews were working to repair the archaic valve system that
allows the lock operator to drain water from the chamber.
Large cracks, gaps and pockmarks were visible on the concrete walls,
and officials said they fear a collapse. The auxiliary chamber is only
360 feet by 56 feet, resulting in Friday's single-file barge movement
and traffic jam.
And if a problem develops there before the main lock is returned to
service May 28, river traffic would halt. That would mean coal - 75
percent of the tonnage passing through Emsworth - not getting to power
plants, construction material like stone and cement not making it sites
and barges carrying gasoline unable to reach tank farms, Sneberger said.
Sneberger said rivers are not the fastest way to transport goods, just
the cheapest, with rail shipping eight times more expensive and truck
transport 50 times as much.
"Rail right now is just about maxed out," he said. "And would you want
another 500 trucks running up and down the road here? Really, there's
no alternative. ... And it's the greenest technology we have."