CONSTRUCTION ON $1.1 BILLION DAM PROJECT UNDER WAY

OLMSTED, Ill. -- Construction of the $1.1 billion Olmsted Locks and Dam is officially under way.

Construction of the locks and dam actually started a week ago, but a special ground-breaking, pile-driving ceremony was conducted at the site Friday, to commemorate the beginning of the lock construction.

ADL, a joint venture of three California engineering companies, has been awarded the $223 million, three-year project requiring mostly concrete and pile-driving work.

ADL has agreed to hire local union labor as a result of an agreement with area politicians. Southern Illinois and Western Kentucky unions will split most of the 400 to 500 workers needed for the contract.

Work currently under way at the dam demands about 50 workers, but will increase to a peak of about 500.

Olmsted, population 350, and several other Southern Illinois communities are expected to share in an economic boom during the construction of the billion-dollar plus project.

Area suppliers will benefit from the dam construction, and local services will be needed for such items as welding, repairs, fuel, lumber and office supplies.

Once completed, the Olmsted lock and dam will employ 55 people and create a single Ohio River level from Olmsted to Smithland, Ky., 60 miles to the east.

The timetable for the facility calls for completion of the overall project by January of 2005, say Corp officials.

The U.S. Corps of Engineers, Louisville (Ky.) District is in charge of constructing the project to provide more efficient commercial navigation in an area known as a transportation hub in America's inland river system.

The dam site is about 15 miles north of the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers at Cairo.

This portion of the project follows the completion of the coffer dam, which has been constructed over the past two years.

Each year, an estimated 100 million tons of barged goods move through the area.

The new locks and dam, funded 50/50 by the Inland Waterways Navigation Trust Fund and Congressional appropriations, will replace Locks and Dams 52 and 53, the last of a system of movable wicket dams completed in the 1920s.

The authorization for the project came in 1988, with a proposed cost of $973 million. Due to allowances for inflation since the authorization, cost figures now total the $1.1 billion.

When completed, the new locks and dams will consist of two 1,200-foot long, 110-foot wide lock chambers and gate and and boat-operated wicker dam.

Another unique feature of the new dam will be a navigable basis section. Wickets can be submerged to allow tows to pass during periods of high water.

This particular stretch of the Ohio River is at high stage 58 percent of the year.

The work here represents the largest navigation project in the history of the Louisville District and is currently the largest public works project in the nation.

When completed, the project will be a major link in a system of 19 projects along the Ohio River, which provides navigation from Pittsburgh, Pa. to Cairo, Ill., were the Ohio empties into the Mississippi River, a distance of 981 miles.

The consulting engineering firm Crawford, Murphy & Tilly Inc. (CMT) of Springfield, Ill., has been awarded a four-year, lump-sum contract for construction management of the project.

CMT will worki under the director of the Corps of Engineers resident engineer and will provide services as a private-sector extension of the Corps of Engineers District staff.

CMT held previous contracts with the Corps for construction phase services with the St. Louis District, from 1984 to 1992, for construction of the Melvin Price Locks and Dam, located on the Mississippi River at Alton, Ill.

Two additional companies will be working with CMT as subcontractors -- Projex Inc., of Indianapolis will provide expertise in computerized construction schedule analysis and R & I Associations Inc., of Louisville, Ky., will provide quality assurance inspection services.