ST. PAUL, Minn. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, is reopening Lock and Dam 9, near Lynxville, Wisconsin, five days earlier than expected.
The lock will now reopen March 12. It was closed to all navigation traffic Dec. 9, 2015, for winter maintenance. An extremely efficient work crew and mild winter allowed for the repairs to be completed earlier than scheduled. The Corps originally projected reopening the lock March 17.
“The Corps’ maintenance and repair crew far exceeded our expectations during this project,” said Kevin Baumgard, St. Paul District operations chief. “The crew seamlessly worked through the winter to finish the work ahead of schedule, which ultimately benefits navigation by having the system open earlier.”
Once the lock is open, navigation traffic will be able to move north of Lock 9. Lake Pepin ice may delay navigation reaching St. Paul, Minnesota, but Corps surveyors continue measuring the ice thickness and reporting the information to navigation officials. The earliest that navigation has started in St. Paul is March 4. It has happened three times since 1981 – 1983, 1984 and 2000.
The nearly 600 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 2015 $100 million budget, nearly 1,600 non-Corps jobs were added to the regional economy as well as $155 million to the national economy. For more information, see www.mvp.usace.army.mil.
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Release no. 16-025