Three Illinois Waterway locks shall be closed by September 30, 2023
The USACE Rock Island Engineer District says that from June 1-Sept. 30, 2023, Brandon Road, Dresden Island and Marseilles locks on the Illinois waterway shall be closed to navigation for vital repairs and upkeep.
The Illinois Waterway system consists of 336 miles (541 km) of navigable water from the mouth of the Calumet River at Chicago to the mouth of the Illinois River at Grafton, Illinois. Based totally on the Illinois River, it’s a system of rivers, lakes, and canals that present a delivery connection from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico through the Illinois and Mississippi rivers.
It consists of eight lock and dam websites which can be lengthy overdue for important repairs. To facilitate repairs, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island District developed a consolidated restore schedule, which included a brief closure to locks in 2019 adopted by two prolonged closures in 2020 and 2023. The closures have been scheduled to happen concurrently to minimize affect to business navigation as a lot as doable. Work was efficiently accomplished in 2020 and the the 2023 closures have begun.
All lock and dam amenities on the Illinois Waterway have a single lock chamber for passing vessels. During the scheduled closures, no vessels will have the ability to cross by the affected locks. Navigation on the remainder of the river, between the locks, won’t be impacted by the closures. Recreational and business vessels will have the ability to navigate throughout the swimming pools with out restriction.
- More on the lock closures schedule HERE
