When people think of the Ohio River, they may think of a single, natural waterway traveling 981 miles from the Point of Pittsburgh to Cairo, Illinois. However, the river exists as part of the much larger and more complex Ohio River Basin, which urgently needs modernization.
The Ohio River Basin is more than just a natural habitat. It provides life to aquatic and avian species and drinking water to over 10 million people. It is an intricate system supporting the nation’s economy with over 2,500 navigable miles, made possible by 50 locking facilities used by towboats and barges to transport 179 million tons of commodities yearly.
“Modernization could take on many different meanings,” said Christopher Phillips, the deputy chief of operations for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Great Lakes and Ohio River Division.
“Modernization could mean replacing old and aging locks, incorporating new materials, or innovating them with remote lock operations,” he said.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built many of the region’s locks and dams in the 1920s and 30s, originally designed to last 50 to 75 years. Engineers designed navigation facilities, knowing they would need upgrades over the coming decades. Now, many of those infrastructures have surpassed 80 years of operations, and a few have already approached a century of service supporting of the nation’s economy.
Many of the older lock chambers are too small to keep up with today’s larger barges. Technology at some facilities is antiquated, still relying on mechanical levers pulled and pushed manually from the lock walls. Older locks still use rudimentary hydraulic systems that push fluid into a cylinder to operate the gates manually, often resulting in leaks. Some facilities use machinery so old that companies do not manufacture parts for them anymore.
“If those machinery parts break down, we would have to custom-machine their replacement, which would be very costly and time-consuming,” said John Dilla, who leads navigation modernization for the Pittsburgh District.
Various U.S. Army Corps of Engineers districts across the Ohio River Basin have taken the lead in modernizing their navigation facilities, bringing their technology up to date, and moving inland navigation toward an integrated system of interconnected locks.
In the Pittsburgh District, for example, the corps finished construction on the newest lock in the nation near Charleroi, Pennsylvania, renaming it the John P. Murtha Locks and Dam. USACE built the original facility on the Monongahela River in 1931. Its latest construction included a larger lock and a control tower designed to integrate with other locks to control them remotely in the future.
“During the entire design process, we incorporated technology for the possibility of remote operations,” said Dilla. “We wanted to be in line with the enterprise’s initiative to look towards the future of remote operations.”
Remote locking is not a reality yet, but building the control tower is a first step toward that goal, Dilla said.
The control tower uses a human-machine interface with touch screens, cameras, intuitive designs, and push-button controls to open gates and valves rather than pulling mechanical levers. It includes cameras and screens to see every inch of the facility from one place. Once the Pittsburgh District upgrades the system at other facilities on the Monongahela River, Murtha’s tower will be able to control them from miles away at the push of a button.
Pittsburgh’s innovations on the Monongahela could lead to technology upgrades in its district and across the nation.
“It’s rare you get the opportunity to influence change at a very significant level to impact how we have done operations in this country for 100-plus years. That’s exciting,” Dilla said.
The Pittsburgh District is now moving to modernize the Upper Ohio River, which includes three locking facilities, where they will implement some of the same designs already planned on the Monongahela River. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provided more than $900 million in funds for the Upper Ohio River, with work beginning at the Montgomery locks next year.
“From the very beginning, we wanted to include modernization into the design for the Upper Ohio project,” Dilla said.
Further south in the basin, the Nashville District has been working on modernization efforts at the Chickamauga and the Kentucky locks, on the Tennessee River.
The Chickamauga Lock is on track to see a million and a half tons of goods pass through its chamber in 2024. It is a vital piece of infrastructure for materials like salt, fertilizers, and asphalt components, all of which travel on the Tennessee River both to and from the Ohio River.
“Chickamauga Lock use by the navigation industry has greatly increased in the last three years,” said Joe Cotton, the Nashville District project manager for the Chickamauga Lock Replacement Project. “Typically, we pass about one million tons of goods through the lock but are on track to have nearly 1.5 million tons this year.”
In addition to its projected tonnage in 2024, the lock also moves an average of 3,500 pleasure watercraft annually, making it the second-most used lock in the nation for recreational boaters.
Chickamauga’s lock has stood 84 years, and the Nashville District is in the process of awarding its final contract to bring the project to a fully operational status.
“The industry upstream of Chickamauga Lock sees a lot of benefit for this project, decreasing lockage time by nearly 80 percent,” said Cotton. “Currently, the lock can pass only one barge through at a time. Our replacement will allow up to nine barges, in line with all the locks downstream of the Tennessee River.”
The original lock’s concrete is undergoing alkali aggregate reaction, which causes the concrete to expand or “grow,” creating prolonged outages and expensive repairs. Approximately $237 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has funded the ongoing Chickamauga Lock Replacement Project, which will go toward bringing the new lock to a fully operational status and the decommissioning of the old lock.
At the Kentucky Lock near Paducah, Kentucky, the Nashville District is adding an additional 1,200-foot lock, doubling the size of the existing one. The district hopes to massively decrease delays for shipping entering the Cumberland and Tennessee Riverways, some of the highest in the nation at more than 10 hours per vessel.
“The Kentucky Lock facilitates movement of goods to over 16 states,” said Capt. Rachel Nelson, member of the project management team for the Kentucky Lock. “A healthy economy fuels a country and its military. Our locks provide continuity of the river system, which makes them some of our most important national security assets.”
The additional lock is scheduled for completion by 2030. Both locks are owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority and operated by the Corps of Engineers in a longstanding partnership.
Modernizing the locks is not just about using the latest technology. It is about increasing the reliability of those locks into the future.
“Even without plugging into remote operations, modernizing our equipment and our controls is very important for us to sustain reliability. It’s going to be necessary in the future, no matter what,” Dilla said.
Dilla has worked for the corps 26 years, starting as a seasonal lock operator and worked his way up to the chief of navigation in Pittsburgh until his current position focused on modernization. He attests that innovating technology does not happen overnight. Many of Pittsburgh District’s own ambitions won’t become a reality for several more decades, but it starts with one lock chamber at a time.
Eventually, Dilla envisions being able to remotely operate all 22 locks within his district from a centralized location.
“Our eye on the far future is transforming from three separate rivers (in Pittsburgh) into a single system, managing it all from a much more concise control center. It's more of a system approach as opposed to an individual-river approach,” he said.
Ultimately, modernization improves service to commercial towboats, boaters and all waterway users. In some locations, locks operate for limited hours because they are scarily used, which hurts boaters or even smaller economies in those areas. With modernization efforts, such as remote locking, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can extend lock hours at its most distant locations while renewing its commitment to navigation for decades to come.
A more reliable system leads to more development in other areas along the river, not just industrial but recreational. Riverside economies, such as restaurants, docks, boating businesses and river sports also benefit.
“Often government can be slow to enact change, but we have the opportunity to impact change in ways that will benefit our stakeholders and the public. It’s exciting to think about that impact,” Dilla said.