MT. VERNON, Ind. — Inland Waterways officials are worried the old and decrepit locks and dams in the system are operating on borrowed time. According to the Waterways Council, more than half of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ 238 chambers at 192 lock sites are older than their 50-year intended designs.

One of the bright spots in this dismal picture was on tour the day before the annual Ohio River Barge Tour at Mt. Vernon (see related article). Downriver, Olmsted Lock and Dam is under construction between Paducah, Ky., and Cairo, Ill.  The new facility will replace the old locks and dams 52 and 53.

At Ohio River Mile 964.4, the new chambers will stand about 17 miles upstream from the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and provide a connection among the Ohio, Tennessee, Cumberland and Mississippi rivers.

Don Wyss, chair of the Grain Marketing, Transportation and Biofuels Committee of the Indiana Soybean Alliance (ISA), participated in the Olmsted tour. He said the project was authorized by Congress in 1988 but was not fully funded at that time, so it took many years to launch.

The Army Corps of Engineers reported that the completed project will encompass two 110-by-1,200-foot lock chambers along the Illinois shoreline and a dam with five tainter gates, a navigable pass section and a fixed weir.

Wyss said the project was originally estimated at $770 million, but now it will cost upwards of $2.9 billion.

The Corps rationalized the increased costs were because of low construction estimates, delays in funding and the vagaries of the river itself.

“The Olmsted Locks and Dam project is an extremely complex and challenging construction project that is located where the Ohio River elevation can fluctuate up to 50 feet annually. In addition to the river width and stage variability, there are a number of other challenging conditions, such as sand waves that move across the river bottom, that make this project difficult to execute,” according to a white paper presented by the Corps at the tour.

An innovative process called “in the wet” is being used in the project; however, that process works well only during low-water season. That’s worked out well this year, since the river level is down several feet and spring flooding was minimal.

Wyss said the 60 people on the tour saw locks 52 and 53, which were built in 1929 using wood for the gates. “It was supposed to last 50 years,” he said. The tour of the new facilities tied in with the August board meeting for the ISA.

“This has been a fascinating and frustrating project,” Wyss added. The new locks will be larger than those at John T. Myers Lock and Dam, with a pair of 1,200-foot chambers. Each will hold a 15-barge tow, he said. The upstream locks have a 1,200-foot and a 600-foot chambers.

The locks and guide walls are finished and the dam is scheduled for completion in 2020, Wyss said. The Corps estimates it will be 2024 before the project will be finished, the last step being removal of the old locks and dams at 52 and 53.

According to the Corps, sections of the dam, called shells, are being fabricated in a casting yard and ferried out into the river where they are set in place. Each shell weighs up to 3,900 tons and stands 125-by-102-by-30-feet. Before the shells are installed, the bottom of the river is graded and piles are driven into the mud.

As of Sept. 30, 2011, the project was about 45 percent complete, with a price tag of $1.4 billon. When the Olmsted locks open, the Corps estimates locking times will be reduced from the current five hours through the locks at 52 and 53, to less than one hour. It estimates the net annual benefits of the new facilities at $640 million, with a payback of less than five years.

The Corps considers the Olmsted project one of its most crucial to complete. The area will become one of the hubs of the inland waterway system. The Corps estimates annually, about 90 million tons of material will barge through the new locks and dam.