COE Meeting to Reduce Operating Hours at MPL Locks

I’m not sure where to post this one. I chose this forum because it would most likely effect the cat folks more then anyone else.

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NEWS RELEASE

July 11, 2012

Contact:

Patrick Moes: 651-290-5202, 651-366-7539, [email protected]

Shannon Bauer: 651-290-5108, 612-840-9453, [email protected]

George Stringham: 651-290-5201, [email protected]

Corps of Engineers to host public meeting on proposal to reduce operating hours at Minneapolis locks in 2013

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, is hosting a public meeting Aug. 7 from 7 to 8 p.m. at the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board Headquarters, 2117 West River Road, Minneapolis, Minn., to discuss reducing the operating hours for Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam, Lower St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam, and Lock and Dam 1, all in Minneapolis.

This proposal is part of a nationwide effort to maximize constrained funding and provide consistent levels of service throughout the Corps’ Inland Marine Transportation System. The cost savings from these efforts could be applied to backlogged maintenance of locks to reduce closures and improve system reliability. Based on Corps’ Headquarters guidance, the current usage at these locks does not support 24-hour service.

The proposed lock operating hours are from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. during the navigation season. These hours would be implemented prior to the start of the 2013 navigation season, which usually begins in March.

Comments are due to Kevin Baumgard, St. Paul District deputy chief of operations, no later than Aug. 30. Submit comments by email to [email protected] or mail to, Corps of Engineers, C/O Kevin Baumgard, 180 5th St. E Suite 700, St. Paul, MN, 55101-1678.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, serves the American public in the areas of environmental enhancement, navigation, flood risk reduction, water and wetlands regulation, recreation sites and disaster response. It contributes around $181 million to the five-state district economy. The 700 employees work at more than 40 sites in five upper-Midwest states. For more information, see http://www.mvp.usace.army.mil.

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Would this mean the locks actually ‘close’ quite a bit earlier than 2AM? Someone on IDO told me it takes about 35 minutes in one of those locks mentioned, so would the last ride actually by at say, 1:25AM?

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I’m not sure where to post this one. I chose this forum because it would most likely effect the cat folks more then anyone else.

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So what you are REALLY saying is maybe one or two people would be effected!

I have talked to the lock guys the last couple of weeks and they are not to happy about this, either am I.

They have said the lock will be closed at 2am – doesn’t really matter if you are in them. You would need to get there with ample time to get through the locks and be out by 2am.

The top lock is 50 feet and I believe 9 million gallons of water in 9 minutes (this is the biggest lock on the whole Mississippi river), the second lock about 4.5 million gallons of water in about 12.5 minutes.

Two valves on the upper lock is why it is able to go quicker.

So it takes 21.5 minutes after the gates are closed to get through both locks, however, this does not include opening the doors, waiting for other traffic, etc.

I have waited 30 mins to 1 hour before getting in because of barge traffic etc.

I understand the need to cut costs, but really, now we are restricting water ways.

Once closed I will be launching off their sandy beaches

Not really sure why fisherman should care too much, except maybe BrianK.. I rarely lock through anymore, maybe if I were taking a long trip or something..

Pretty sure this one does not directly affect BK as his home waters are quite a ways down at P4. I don’t know that the locks further down are next in line anytime soon since they actually push a lot more commercial traffic through. There aren’t terribly many operations using barge traffic upstream of the lowest of these locks.

I’ve used them once in 56 years and that was during the day.

You don’t look a day over 55 Brian …

The locks closing at 2am are the least of our problems!