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February 5, 2008
The Army Corps of Engineers is scheduled to receive $42 million toward the continued rehabilitation of Chickamauga Lock in President Bush’s fiscal 2009 proposed budget, unveiled Monday.
The 68-year-old dam is entering the fourth year of an eight-year, $349 million upgrade.
“The Chickamauga Lock is fully funded in the president’s budget,” said U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, a member of the House Appropriations Committee who made the lock replacement his top legislative priority three years ago. “In the next year, you are going to see more and more cranes in the river and more work going on.”
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the new lock will lead to improved and increased shipping that could take 100,000 trucks off nearby Interstate 75 each year.
President Bush announced Monday his $3.1 trillion fiscal 2009 budget, which includes $10.5 billion for Army Corps of Engineers projects. Besides Chickamauga Lock in Tennessee, the Corps is rehabilitating Center Lake Dam near McMinnville, Tenn., and will receive $53 million this coming year for that project.
“This year’s civil works budget provides critical funding for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to continue to contribute to the nation’s economic and environmental well being,” said John Paul Woodley Jr., the Corps’ assistant secretary for civil works.
The Corps, which manages the TVA-built Chickamauga Lock, began building a replacement lock in 2005 after studies concluded the facility would be inoperable by 2010 without aggressive maintenance.
In the current fiscal year, the Corps is spending $35 million to begin installation of a coffer dam and the foundations for the lock walls that will help form the new and bigger lock.
Wayne Huddleston, project manager for the Chickamauga Lock, said Monday that the president’s proposed budget included most of the money requested by the Corps. He said he hopes to have the new lock open by 2013 and then to complete remaining wall construction and closing of the smaller, older lock within the following year.
Jan Jones, executive director of the Tennessee River Valley Association, said the extra funding for the lock in the president’s budget “helps move this project closer to what we need.”
“We simply can’t afford to lose that project,” she said. “It has too much economic importance to the entire Tennessee Valley.”
Though some Democrats have attacked President Bush’s final budget proposal, Rep. Wamp said he hopes that if the project gets to its halfway point, it will continue to be funded no matter which party gains the White House or controls Congress.
“It’s an annual challenge, but to have the full Corps of Engineers’ request in the president’s budget request is a huge success,” he said.
Laura Lefler, spokeswoman for Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said, “The senator is pleased that Chickamauga Lock was included in the president’s budget at a funding level that will allow continued construction on this important project.”
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