LLOYD — The Ohio River is “the silent highway” that transports millions of dollars worth of refined products and raw materials through the Greenup Lock and Dam every single day.

When the nearby lock is compromised, as it is now with a major repair project under way to fix a broken anchor arm securing one of the lock’s massive miter gates, the economic ripple is felt from the towing industry to power plants, manufacturing facilities and ultimately to individual customers.

Mike Keathley, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Project Manager for the Greenup Lock and Dam, said repair work at the site is progressing well, including immediate efforts to immobilize and stabilize the malfunctioning miter gate. Braces have been installed and cables spliced into strategic locations “like a safety chain, if you will,” he explained.

A large crane will soon arrive from Louisville to lift the gate out of the lock system and place it on a barge for repairs and detailed inspection. According to the engineers’ best estimates, the gate could be renovated and reinstalled within six to eight weeks, restoring the flow of barge traffic to normal.

As of Friday, two dozen tows with barges awaited passage from either side of the river. Noting some of the barges are empty while others carry eagerly awaited commodities including home-heating oil and coal, Keathley said towing industry officials have been working together to determine which vessels will be the first to pass when the auxiliary lock chamber is in use.

Several tows and barges have been able to make their way through the system at Lloyd since the anchor arm broke during normal use last week, although concerns about additional stresses on the secondary chamber have forced operators to exercise extreme caution, despite the urgency for the big boats to be on their way.

“We have to proceed with caution because what we don’t want is a total closure of the river,” Keathley said, explaining a series of controlled tests have helped isolate some of the variables in the plan to repair the miter gate. The auxiliary lock was put into action last weekend, he said, although the built-in monitoring equipment indicated stress levels rising, with contributing factors including turbulent river flow, temperature variances and turbulence from the boats themselves.

The current cold temperatures, he speculated, may actually work in favor of the repair process because the large metal structure doesn’t expand and contract as much as it would with the extreme temperature fluctuation of a typical summer day.

Working to get barges through the auxiliary lock chamber is a far less efficient process than using the primary lock, Keathley said, explaining the larger chamber can accommodate an entire vessel and move it through within about 45 minutes. The auxiliary chamber, on the other hand, requires tow boat crews to divide their barges and pass them through in sections, requiring about three hours to get everything from one side to the other.

“That time difference seriously impacts your efficiency,” Keathley commented.

Expertise needed

Guiding the river’s many big barge systems into the lock is also a considerable challenge for any riverboat pilot, Keathley said, explaining the lock chamber is only five feet wider than the barges, leaving practically no margin of error for those responsible for steering the vessels into the lock. Due to the river’s natural current, Keathley said the towing industry often provides assistance to boats to help guide the front section of the massive barges safely into the lock.

The Greenup Lock and Dam was last inspected in November, and no problems were identified with the anchor arm that failed during regular use, causing the miter gate to become unsafe. Keathley said the lock and dam is part of an aging infrastructure that has served its purpose well, but is at a point where serious maintenance concerns are becoming increasingly crucial.

“We sort of take these locks and dams for granted,” he said, quickly adding, “This has exceeded 50 years of heavy use in pretty severe environmental conditions.”

The current lock failure is not the first to cause a hindrance for the Ohio River’s towing industry. Keathley said an outage of 52 consecutive days during 2003 caused considerable headaches, as well as an additional shutdown a couple of years later. Keathley said Congress authorized an improvement project in 2000 to extend the Greenup lock’s auxiliary chamber to the same dimensions as the primary lock, although that work has not been initiated. That improvement would offer many advantages, including an opportunity to perform repair work in the primary lock.

“We recognize that the main chamber needs rehabilitating,” he said, adding the Greenup Lock is the seventh-busiest of the 230 of its kind in the nation, and is ranked eighth in terms of the tonnage that passes through. The true economic impact of a shut down, or even a slow down, at the lock, is nearly impossible to calculate, Keathley observed.

Lock and dam purpose

Many people have misunderstandings about the purpose of the Greenup Lock and Dam, Keathley said, particularly that the system was built as a flood control project. The entire purpose of the local lock and dam, he said, is to keep the Ohio River open for the ships that move precious cargo up and down stream.

“Water levels in the river fluctuate greatly in a year with rain and snowfall,” he explained. “ Without navigational locks and dams there would be high-water periods after winter and in July and August we would have really low sections.”

The boats and barges that make their way along the river require a minimum amount of “draft,” or clearance for the portion of the ships and barges beneath the water line, to safely make the journey.

“They can’t move if it isn’t deep enough and we have to provide that depth consistently and allow year-round navigation,” Keathley said.

The combination of dams and locks essentially translates to a hydraulic staircase, allowing boats and cargo to step up or down between dammed sections.

“A lot of folks believe this is for flood control like a lake reservoir. That’s not the case at all. Our main goal is to maintain a constant pool,” Keathley said, explaining the need to use control gates and valves when water surges downstream from storms in places like Pittsburgh.

Another common misunderstanding about the lock is that pumps are used to fill the passage chambers, Keathley explained the entire system is gravity fueled, with incoming water piped from a higher elevation, and outgoing water simply adding to the downstream flow. The lock and dam is staffed by a dedicated team of hard-working individuals 24 hours a day, every day with no holidays, Keathley said, pointing out a few of the strenuous and often dangerous tasks faced by those workers every day.

“It’s not easy work and it is dangerous work,” he said, citing a variety of missions that must be accomplished during extreme heat and cold, as well as wet or frozen and low-visibility circumstances.

In addition to serving as one of the nation’s most vital economic and distribution assets, the Greenup Lock and Dam is also a place for individual and family recreation. Keathley said the picnic tables, shelters and open areas are widely used during warmer months for jogging, biking, group activities including football.

“A lot of people like to fish these lock and dam projects,” he said, noting the turbulence from the outflow generates high levels of dissolved oxygen in the water and seems to attract plenty of fish. “Weather does not seem to deter them at all.”