Photo By Kaylee Wendt | Year end statistics for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Buffalo District's Black...... read more read more
(BUFALO, N.Y.) Jan. 17, 2025 – The Black Rock Lock has wrapped up an eventful year, bringing a mix of challenges and achievements for a lock which is over 100 years old.
Maintained and operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Buffalo District, the Black Rock Lock provides the only means for deep draft commercial vessels to reach delivery ports on the upper Niagara River. It also provides safe navigation by allowing vessels to bypass the rapids on the Niagara River at the outlet of Lake Erie.
During 2024, 1,240 vessels passed through the lock – 1,041 of which were recreational vessels – for a total of 868 lockages. Commerce through the lock saw 49.6 metric tons of cargo consisting mainly of liquid asphalt/tar supplying Suite-Kote and NOCO terminals.
The lock supported $4.2 million in business revenue; 15 direct, indirect, and induced jobs, and $1.2 million in labor income to the transportation sector.
2024 also saw significant milestones in the Buffalo District’s maintenance of the lock.
In April, a gudgeon pin was replaced in the lock’s lower miter gate – the set of doors that seal in water as boats lock through. The pin is essential to the functionality of the gate as it supports about 78,000 pounds of horizontal force and the vertical weight of the 156,000-pound gate.
In August, a new lower miter gate was delivered and assembled at the Black Rock Lock. For the first time, the gates at the lock are being replaced, with the original, century old gates being swapped out for new, modern, and more effective structures.
The current gates are one of a kind and still consist of mostly original parts from their installation in 1912. There are no other gates like them in any of the Corps of Engineers’ 191 lock sites nation-wide.
A new upper miter gate is tentatively scheduled to be delivered by November of 2025, with installation of both new gates planned for November of 2028.
Going into 2025, 200 years of the Erie Canal will be celebrated. Since opening in 1825, the canal has been recognized as an engineering marvel, turning New York State into an economic powerhouse.
New York City became the nation’s principal seaport and the canal served as a major “gateway to the west” for immigrants coming to America.
To celebrate the opening of the canal, a “Wedding of the Waters” took place as the Seneca Chief entered the Erie Canal at Buffalo on Oct. 26, 1825, reaching New York City on November 4, where a keg of water from Lake Erie was poured into the Atlantic Ocean by Governor DeWitt Clinton.
Built between 1908 and 1913, the current Black Rock Lock operates year-round but sees a reduction in traffic during the winter. There has been a lock at Black Rock going back to 1833.
The lock is an essential part of “The Great Loop,” a system of waterways that takes boaters around the eastern portion of the United States and part of Canada.
The 6,000-mile loop traverses the Great Lakes, down either the Mississippi or Tennessee Rivers, across the Gulf of Mexico and up the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, which can take upward of a year to complete.
The lock continues to be essential to business, industry, and recreation in Western New York and across the Great Lakes Navigation System.
| Date Taken: | 01.14.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 01.14.2025 08:52 |
| Story ID: | 489038 |
| Location: | BUFFALO, NEW YORK, US |
| Web Views: | 40 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, That's a Wrap – Black Rock Lock Looks Back on 2024, by MSgt Ryan Campbell, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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