Industrial Canal Lock

The Inner Harbor Navigation Canal Lock—commonly known as Industrial Canal Lock or simply Industrial Lock [cite web
title=About IHNC
work=Industrial Canal Lock Replacement Project
url=http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/prj/ihnc/TEXTabout.asp
accessdate=2006-04-02] —is a navigation lock in New Orleans. It connects the Lower Mississippi River to the Industrial Canal and other sea-level waterways. Because it is shorter and narrower than most modern locks on the Mississippi River System, the 1920s vintage lock has become a bottleneck between the nation's two highest-tonnage waterways—the Mississippi and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.cite press release
publisher = Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District
date = 1998-09-23
title = Industrial Canal lock reopens on schedule
url = http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/pao/releases/lock.htm ]

The lock is located at Lower Mississippi River mile 92.6 AHP. Owing to the confluence of multiple waterways at the Industrial Canal and Lock, the lock chamber is also considered mile 6 EHL (east of Harvey Lock) on the Intracoastal and mile 63 on the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet Canal.

Although the depth over the sill is 9.6 meters (31.5 ft), most of the traffic through the lock consists of shallower-draft barge tows transiting the Intracoastal.cite web
title=Inner Harbor Navigation Canal Evaluation Report, March 1997
work=Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District
url=http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/prj/ihnc/EvaluationReport/ihnc_eval.htm
accessdate=2006-04-02]

History

The Industrial Canal and Lock were built by the Port of New Orleans to provide navigation between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. The project was completed in 1923.

In the 1930s, the federal Gulf Intracoastal Waterway connected to the Industrial Canal via Lake Pontchartrain and used the lock to connect to the Mississippi River. Commercial traffic using the lock paid a local toll of 5 cents per gross ton. Beginning in 1944, the federal government leased the lock and the southern segment of the canal, eliminating the toll.cite web
author=Lynn M. Alperin
title=History of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway
work=U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Office of History
format=PDF
url=http://www.usace.army.mil/inet/usace-docs/misc/nws83-9/entire.pdf
accessdate=2006-04-03]

In 1965 another waterway, the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet (MRGO) Canal, was completed and began using Industrial Lock. Thus three different waterways—the Industrial Canal, the Intracoastal and the MRGO—were now using the same lock to connect to the river. The MRGO is a deeper-draft channel affording ocean-going vessels a short-cut from New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico.

In 1986 the federal government purchased the Industrial Lock from the Port of New Orleans.

Recent repairs

The lock underwent major repairs in 1998. It was closed for two months, forcing marine traffic to take an oft-used detour through Breton Sound near the mouth of the Mississippi River.

The $6 million project included $2 million in emergency repairs. The chamber was dewatered for the first time in 20 years, and concrete was replaced in portions of the chamber itself and in four of the eight valves. The valve mechanisms had suffered rust and corrosion and were replaced with stainless steel hardware.

Six of the ten original gates, fabricated around 1920 and weighing 250 tons apiece, were removed for sandblasting and replacement of weak spots. New seals and pintles were installed.

According the the US Army Corps of Engineers website the lock was closed on 08/11/2008 for 60 days for repairs.

Replacement

Replacement of Industrial with a larger lock was authorized as early as 1956, provided that traffic levels justified it. By the late 20th century, barge tows were waiting an average of ten hours to lock through. Despite community opposition in the adjacent Lower 9th Ward and Bywater neighborhoods, Congress approved a $573 million replacement project in 1998, and site acquisition and preparation began.

The new lock design features a larger chamber—35.5 meters (110 ft) wide, 366 meters (1200 ft) long and 9.6 meters (31.5 ft) deep. The lock is designed to be precast nearby and floated to site, immediately north of the existing lock. [cite web
title=Statement of Les Sutton representing Waterways Work!
work=Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
url=http://www.house.gov/transportation/water/03-07-02/sutton.html
accessdate=2006-04-19] [cite web
title=IHNC Lock Replacement Project - Strategic Planning and Facilitation
work=MetroSource: Projects & Services
url=http://metro-source.com/projects/projects.asp?project_id=5
accessdate=2006-04-19] Ancillary and collateral work includes replacement of the adjacent St. Claude Avenue Bridge and nearby Florida Avenue Bridge.cite web
title=Louisiana: Replacement of New Orleans Industrial Canal Lock
work=Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, Archive of Prominent Section 106 Cases, Fall 2000
url=http://www.achp.gov/casearchive/casesfall00LA.html
accessdate=2006-04-19]

Opponents of the replacement project argue that, in addition to causing environmental problems and economic disruption, lock construction is economically unjustified. Deep-draft ship traffic through the existing lock, for instance, declined by 29 percent between 1983 and 1991; and the primary barge commodity, coal, is projected to continue declining due to a number of economic and political factors. [cite web
title=A Lock Without Logic
work=Gulf Restoration Network
format=PDF
url=http://healthygulf.org/wetlands/DestructionbyDesign/FINALINDCANAL2.PDF
accessdate=2006-04-13]

Notes