Photo By Melanie Peterson | Maintenance and repair crews from the St. Paul and Rock Island Districts install a new...... read more read more
The St. Paul District, with the help of its sister district, Rock Island, replaced nearly 90-year-old miter gates at Lock and Dam 5A near Fountain City, Wisconsin, and 85-year-old miter gates at Lock and Dam 8, in Genoa, Wisconsin.
The gates at Lock and Dam 8 were replaced over the course of two weeks in June with five 12-hour closures. The new upstream gates at Lock and Dam 8 are 27 feet tall, 100 feet wide and weigh 114 tons. The new downstream gates are 30 feet tall, 100 feet wide and weigh 121 tons.
The gates at Lock and Dam 5 A were replaced over 1.5 weeks in July with four 12-hour closures. The old 90-ton gates were replaced with thicker and heavier 114-ton gates. Both the upper and lower gates are 27 feet high and 100 feet wide.
The increase in weight of the gates required newly upgraded anchorages, which serve to provide support of the new gates while also allowing them to pivot, said Troy Frank, acting lockmaster at Lock and Dam 8. The anchorages were installed over the winter season.
All eight of the gates were assembled at Newt Marine Services – a subcontractor of Johnson Machine Works, Inc. – in Dubuque, Iowa, before coming up the river to their new location. The gates were installed with the help of the ‘Quad Cities’ floating crane from Rock Island District, which is a 500-ton crane.
The project delivery team included multiple structural, mechanical, electrical and civil engineers, in addition to operations and lock personnel. The experience and bulk of the install is credited to the maintenance and repair crews from both the St. Paul and Rock Island Districts.
“Lock and dams are vital to our economy,” Frank said. “Transferring goods from St. Paul to the Gulf of Mexico through locks keeps our economy moving.”
In addition to being the more economical means to transport commodities down the river, locks and dams also offer the greenest option for moving goods, said Mike Holzer, project engineer. “There are 90% less greenhouse gases produced by a towboat than a semi-truck. A 15-boat tow is equivalent to 200 box cars on a train, or 1,000 semi-trucks.”
Operationally, it’s mission critical to perform routine maintenance on the locks and dams. Most minor maintenance is performed annually during the winter when it’s outside of navigation season.
“Every 20 years, the lock chambers are dewatered, and we make sure the wear of structures under the water line is not excessive and will sustain another 20 years,” Frank said. “It’s a rare glimpse of the infrastructure at the bottom of the Mississippi.”
Replacing the miter gates is one step in ensuring smooth navigation on the river. Last summer, the gates at Lock and Dam 2, near Hastings, Minnesota, were replaced. The team is already looking to the future for additional miter gate replacements. “Each time we go through this process, we gain efficiency,” said Jim Cook, project manager.
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This story originally appeared in the Summer 2022 issue of Crosscurrents on pages 16 and 17 https://www.mvp.usace.army.mil/Media/Crosscurrents/
| Date Taken: | 10.07.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 10.07.2022 15:09 |
| Story ID: | 430986 |
| Location: | FOUNTAIN CITY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 66 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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