Repairs To Navigation Lock Expected To Take Two Months

It will take two months to fix a broken navigation lock on the Ice Harbor Dam, but the repairs will be made during a scheduled closing in January and February.

The upstream lock was damaged Sunday night when a Tidewater Barge Lines tugboat ran across it, cutting two foot-deep gouges, said Dutch Meier, chief of public affairs for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Walla Walla office. The lock could not be opened all the way after the accident, in which no one was injured, said Meier.

The Snake River lock, located upstream from Pasco, reopened Monday after the Corps installed a floating bulkhead that will catch and spill water until the dam is closed for a scheduled $5 million repair to its downstream lift gate in January. The Corps can then repair the lock as well, Meier said.