Corps of Engineers praised for quick reopening of McAlpine Lock

Corps of Engineers praised for quick reopening of McAlpine Lock    A group of inland waterway users praised the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for its quick repairs to the McAlpine Lock on the Ohio River.
   The lock, located near Louisville, Ky., was opened three days ahead of schedule. The Corps shut down the lock for maintenance Aug. 9. The work was expected to take 14 days.
   “The Corps of Engineers did a spectacular job of alerting waterways transporters, shippers, and users in advance of the closure, and then working overtime to repair the failing miter gate and disintegrating mechanical components,” said R. Barry Palmer, president and chief executive officer of the Waterways Council, in a statement Monday.
   Closure of the McAlpine Lock upset many carriers and shippers that rely on the waterway system. Unlike other locks, there is no auxiliary lock available at McAlpine, and river was closed to all navigation at this location during the repairs.
   Commodities affected by the McAlpine closure were coal, petrochemicals, aggregates, metallic ores, scrap metals, iron and steel products, ferro-alloys, minerals, grain and fertilizer from the Gulf and the Lower Mississippi River region to and throughout the Ohio Valley.
   The Waterways Council said the McAlpine Lock closure should serve as a “wake-up call” for the federal government to invest in upgrading the nation’s inland waterways system.
   “The costs to heavy industry, and ultimately the American public, of deferred maintenance at critical locations along America’s river system are rising exponentially,” Palmer said. “Currently locks on the system are unavailable about 120,000 hours annually because of scheduled and unscheduled delays.”
   The council commissioned an interim report on the economic impacts of the McAlpine closure, which was released July 21. The council is conducting a follow-up survey of the closure’s impacts on the industry.