Corps proposes changes in service hours for Lower St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam and Lock and Dam 1, public invited to comment

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, proposes to reduce the hours of service at Lower St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam in downtown Minneapolis and Lock and Dam 1, adjacent to Minnehaha Park, starting the 2015 navigation season.

The Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014, or WRRDA, directed the Secretary of the Army to close the Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam within one year after the bill was signed into law. With closing the Upper St. Anthony Falls lock, it is anticipated the remaining two Minneapolis locks will have less than 500 commercial lockages per year.

To comply with the Corps Inland Marine Transportation System guidance, this decrease in lockages would require reduced hours of service at the remaining two locks to one 10 hour shift per day. The locks would still operate seven days a week. Currently, the locks are open 19 hours per day.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers headquarters is evaluating the new law requiring the closing of the Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam and will provide guidance on how to proceed.

Comments will be received through Oct. 22, 2014, and may be submitted to Mr. Kevin Baumgard, Deputy Chief, Operations Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 180 Fifth St. E., Ste. 700, St. Paul, MN 55101–1678, or by email at kevin.l.baumgard@usace.army.mil.

The nearly 650 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, employees working at more than 40 sites in five upper-Midwest states serve the American public in the areas of environmental enhancement, navigation, flood damage reduction, water and wetlands regulation, recreation sites and disaster response. Through the Corps’ Fiscal Year 2011 $175 million budget, nearly 2,800 non-Corps jobs were added to the regional economy as well as $271 million to the national economy. For more information, see www.mvp.usace.army.mil.

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