Port of Pittsburgh Commission seeks funds to update lock and dam system - Pittsburgh Business Times:

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In that instance, many companies were able to use supplies they hadin However, if the aginy locks and dams located in southwestern Pennsylvania alonyg the Ohio and Monongahela riveras are not repaired in a timel manner, there could be a complete failurwe of one or more that coulsd force some companies to shut down, accordin to James McCarville, executive directorr of the Port of Pittsburgh. "Several people told me they were withimn days of having to closweoperations (when the Bellville lock and dam was shut Mr. McCarville said.
It is the fear of a completed failure of one ofthis region's locks or dams that is promptinyg the Port of Pittsburgh Commission to ask for additional funding to update the system's locks and dams more quickly. "The original plans wouldc give the navigation system a 26 percent efficiency of scale of operationj with larger locks and wouldadd 8,80p jobs to the Mon Vallet region," Mr. McCarville said. "Now, what we are concernecd about is not just improvingthe system, but we are concernee that the old system is beginning to demonstrat e a lack of reliability. This couldx have significant negative impacts on companies already inthe region.
" If therse were a failure at the Emsworth Locks and Dam or alongy the Mon, the cost of moving coal from West Virginiaq to industries and power stations in Pittsburghj would more than triple, from $4 per ton to $14.59 per ton, according to a study conducted last year by Martib and Associates of Lancaster, whicjh looked at the economic impact on the port of According to Mr. McCarville, if the river cargk ever needed to be transportexby truck, it would take abouty 75 trucks per hour, 24 hours a day, seve days a week to keep the businesses open that rely on rivet cargo.
"That is an intolerable level thecommunit wouldn't be able to absorb," he Each year, about 42 million tons of rivere cargo come into and out of the Pittsburgu region, which makes it the second-busiest inland port in the Two-thirds of the material that travels via barge is coal that goes to powerd plants and steel manufacturers. Some of the biggest users include CSG, CONSOkL Energy, U.S. Steel, Allegheny Energyu and First Energy, according to Mr. There are 17 locks and dams in the Port of Pittsburgh regioh and another 17 down river on the all of whichare built, maintained and operatesd by the US Army Corps of Engineers.
Most of these locks and dams were built between 1906 and 1935 and are in need of modernizationm oremergency repairs. In an effort to secure additiona l funding for these aging locks and the Port ofPittsburgh Commission, Waterways Association of Pittsburgh and River Terminapl Operators Association of Pittsburgh, will be traveling to D.C., next week to meet with Congressional staff The Port of Pittsburgh Commission, which serves as a marketing arm and legislativ e liaison for the port in an 11-countuy region of southwestern Pennsylvania, is asking Congress for $82.7 million in 2006 to fix the lockw and dams most in need of repaifr or replacement. Last year, the region receives $31.
5 million, and this the government has increasec its recommendationto $65.8 million. "We thino this situation is so critical we believe we are going to need thefull $82.7y million," Mr. McCarville said. When a lock or dam is shut down for boats andbarges can'tf get through. When repaira are short and scheduled, shutdowns usually aren't a problem. But lengthy or unschedulef maintenance is difficult for companies that rely on the At the Emsworth Locks and Dam, one of six majore river facilities along the Ohio the Army Corps of Engineersw has invested $517,000 in emergencyt funding to prevent a failure of the system.
On the lower Monongahelqa River, $250 million has been spent thus far, most of whicn went to rebuilding lock 2at Braddock. the lower Mon project, which was scheduled for completioin 2004, is only partluy completed. Lock 4 at Charleroi still needds to be expanded and reinforced and built up beforw lock 3 can betorn down. According to Mr. at the present rate of the project, which has a 50-year life when completed, will be finishedx around 2021. "Unless we speed it up, the Corpx of Engineers will have to spend a significangt amount of funding to rehabilitate the damat (lock) 3 just to keep it open long enougu to close it down," Mr.
McCarville Mark Devinney, president of the Waterway s Association of Pittsburgh and a board member of the River TerminalOperators Association, said he's pessimistic lock 4 will hold up untill construction is completed. "If it goes down, that's it, the rivedr is cut in half," Mr. Devinney "Having that river go down would be a realeconomicc shock." Mr. Devinney said the outdated Dashields and Montgomery locks and dams have lock chambers half the heighg of moremodern locks. This meana some barges have to unloadd half oftheir material, move through the lockzs and then return for the otherd half.
To deal with thesee issues and prevent a complete failure of the the Port of Pittsburgh Commission is forfiscal 2006, $63.5 million for the lower Mon, $15 milliom for the Emsworth Dam rehab and $3 million for a studty looking at whether the Emsworth, Dashields and Montgomery locksa and dams need to be replaced. In the long the Port of Pittsburgh Commission hopes tosecure $15 million over the next two to threee years for planning long-ternm modernization of the Upper Ohio Rivef and $63.5 million a year through 2016 to fund improvemeng projects on the lower Mon. "The Corps of Engineerx making repairs on new dams andlockws ...
benefits our business because we won't see any unexpectefd failures," said Fred Solomon, spokesman for Greensburg-based Alleghenyt Energy, which moves a significant amount of theroughly 16.9 million tons of coal it produces annually by barge. "Itf there were a shutdown that lastedmore than, let'ws say, four weeks, it mightr become more difficult for us. But, we're in coal There are dozens of places wherw you can pull up a rail car and getit (the to a power station.
"