$13B Needed to Repair US Locks

There are 192 locks on 12,000 miles of American rivers, and most have lived far beyond their life expectancy, the NY Times reported last week.

The Times reported that the Army Corps of Engineers estimate it will take $13 billion through 2020 just to fix the decaying locks, most of which were built in the 1930s.

“Few people realize the shape our locks and dams are in,” Mike Toohey, the president and chief executive of the Waterways Council, an industry group in Washington, told the Times.

 Corps officials say it will take until 2090 to complete all the projects without additional funding.

The Times reports that over the last decade, the average delay for barges at the Kentucky Dam has grown from less than four hours in 2004 to nearly seven hours today.