Getting Around: Report warns of flooding risk from lock failures in Illinois

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Getting Around: Report warns of flooding risk from lock failures in Illinois

Jon Hilkevitch | Getting Around
February 23, 2009

LOCKPORT LOCK AND DAM—Water levels rise or sink the equivalent of a four-story building each time the lock channel here lifts or lowers mammoth barges laden with coal or other cargo through this tricky stretch of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.

Lockmaster Dave Nolen knows every turn and every ripple along this 2.6-mile section of waterway flanked by canal walls built in the 1890s. That makes him a very worried man.

"We have 39 feet of water that we are holding off Joliet," Nolen said, pointing downstream to downtown Joliet as he stood Thursday on a deck overlooking the watertight gates at one end of the lock.

"People in Joliet probably wouldn't be able to sleep at night if they knew how devastating the flooding would be because of a breach," he said, raising his voice to be heard above the roar of 25 million gallons of swirling water being released downstream after a barge traveling up-river passed through the lock.

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Nationally, an estimated $12 billion is needed to bring the system to a state of good repair and replace antiquated locks and dams, according to the Waterways Council, a public advocacy group made up of companies that ship products by barge.

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