| Willamette Falls Locks |
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| Stimulus Funds Will Put Locks Back in Business |
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Clackamas County Review Reports...
Testing on the locks will take place over the summer, long-term funding is still an issue.
The Willamette Falls Locks could reopen as soon as May, 2010, thanks to $1.8 million in federal stimulus money awarded to the U.S, Army Corps of Engineers.
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| Stimulus Money for the Locks |
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Official word was received on April 29, 2009, that the Willamette Locks will receive $1.8 million in federal stimulus funding.
This funding will be used to complete the inspection and any/all necessary repairs. It is important to note that the original request was based not just on repairs to the gates, but also other repairs and upgrades noted in the 2007 Inca Engineering report.
A collective thanks to everyone involved who helped get this engineering upgrade the funding it despirately deserved.
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| Willamette Falls Locks |
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Willamette Falls Locks Operating Schedule -Update
Locks Pass Inspection But Remain Closed -Clackamas Review, by Clara Hansen
February 11, 2009
Members of a coalition working to repoair and reopen the Willamette Falls Locks could breathe a collective sigh of relief following an inspection last week.
The long-delayed hydraulic steel and structure inspection of Gate 3 -considered a harbinger of problems because it went the longest of the seven gates without repairs -revealed "no major structureal flaws," said project manager Jeremy Weber of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Contractors were expected to replace the shock-absorbing timber casing with a longer-lasting plastic product made of recycled materials, and weld some cracks on the steek skeleton before putting the gate back in its slot this week.
But it's unclear whether the Army Corps of Engineers will be able to fund a full inspection of the entire lock and gate system and repone the Willamette Falls Locks -a water elevator of sorts for river-going vessels -any time soon.
"We don't have funding for the complete inspection," said Diana Fredlund, a Portland district representative of the Corps. "There are a lot of different pieces that need to be inspected."
Still, the fact that Gate 3 was in decent shape was good news to a group of entities rallying to save the locks.
And with the Corps in line for a hefty chunk of stimulus funding in proposals working their way toward approval in Washington, D.C., members of the One River Coalition are optimistic some will be funneled toward the mothballed locks system on the banks of West Linn.
Stimulus funding is targeted for projects ready for bidding or already underway, said Steve Greenwood of Oregon Solutions, a nonprofit supported by the governor working with local and regional partners in the One River Group.
With a barge-mounted crane already at the site and a contract in place, he feels the locks system is a strong contender.
"It doesn't get much more shovel-ready than this," Greenwood said.
The locks have been closed to river traffic since last winter as groups work to cobble togehter funding for the inspection, a review required periodically.
Until then, boats and barges traversed the 42-foot drop of Willamette Falls by passing through a lock-and-gate lift system.
Gates open to allow vessels' passage between the four lock chambers, providing the only safe passage between the upper and lower sections of the Willamette River.
A variety of entities came together to help foot the bill for operations when it became clear the Corps of Engineers was struggling, but the funding shortfall remains large.
For the first phase of the inspection, the Corps scraped together about $600,000 -about four times the system's annual operating expenses -from its accounts. The Oregon Department of Transportation also pitched in.
But it turned out the complete inspection and necessary repairs could cost $2.37 million, according to One River Coalition materials.
Now, even if stimulus money conmes through for the Corps, that doesn't guarantee funding of the local project.
The department prioritizes projects according to tonnage -how much passes through a port of other waterway system, said Fredlund, the Corps spokeswoman.
"Looking at the Columbia River, Bonneville and John Day, there are hundreds of millions of tons of grain that go through," she said. :When you look at the Willamette Falls Locks, unfortunately it's jet boats with 30 to 40 people on them, and possibly some mill traffic.
Given the infrastructure needs nationwide, she said, the locks don't rank very high.
"That's not because we don't thing they're important...," Fredlund said. "I don't want to create false hope."
Willamette Falls Locks are on inspection from a bright and busy future!
The locks have a final safety inspection and then the locks will be operational once again in late 2008. According to sources at the Portland District Corps of Engineers office, the Corps' reprogramming request, identifying money to pay for the Judraulic Steel Structures inspection, has been signed by the Assistant Secretary of the Army and sent on to the congressional committee that requested it. The inspection, which will take approximately three months, may being right after Lock Fest and may overlap or actually start in the Federal budget year 2008-2009, which begins October 1.
Boaters and flotillas who have participated in the past at Lock Fest will not be able to float the river. Instead, the Willamette Falls Heritage Foundation urges boaters to visit on land, at the Locks park.
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| 2008 Lock Fest Team Accentuates the Positive |
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Lock Fest planning has started and with the West Linn Arts Festival as a partner with an event on the same day -September 13, 2008.
The Willamette Falls Heritage Foundation hopes families and history lovers will bring the whole family, invite out-of-town guests, and take in one of West Linn's signature events.
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