VISITORS HAVE OPPORTUNITY TO SEE OLMSTED DAM WORK

OLMSTED, Ill. - The $1.1 billion Olmsted Locks and Dam, a project first proposed more than 30 years ago, is beginning to take shape with construction of the coffer dam, which is about 50 percent complete.

Visitors to the area will have an opportunity to view the project Saturday during the annual Olmsted River and Rail Day celebration.

"The view is spectacular," said Chuck Parrish, historian with the Corps of Engineers Louisville District. "The new shelter building overlooks the river, and visitors have a good vantage point for viewing the coffer dam work."

Construction workers will be busy Saturday.

"We're working two 10-hour shifts a day, six days a week," said Richard Schipp, the Corps resident engineer for the project. "We're a little behind, and our target date for completing the coffer dam is July 1995."

A Corps representative will be on hand at the shelter building to greet visitors and discuss the overall dam project, which is not scheduled for completion until 2006.

Parrish will be present at the old railroad depot in Olmsted, where he will have an exhibit pertaining to the Olmsted Locks and Dam project along with various brochures about the Ohio River, including Dams 53 and 52, which the Olmsted projects will replace.

The Saturday River and Rail Day marks the third day for the village's celebration, sponsored by the Olmsted Historical Society.

One of the society's project is restoring the old railroad depot as a museum.

"The depot is on the National Historic Register," said Jim Burd, a member of the historical group. "Olmsted at one time was noted as a railroad and river shipping center."

Southern Illinois was a big poultry producing area at one time, said Burd. Farmers took their chickens to Olmsted for shipping, thus creating the name, "Feather Trail," for one of the roads leading into Olmsted.

A number of events are scheduled, including an antique car show, antique tractor show, antiques and crafts, live band entertainment, and a parade at 1 p.m.

Balfour-Beatty Construction Inc. of Wilmington, Del., is contractor for the $53.7 million coffer dam at Olmsted. Balfour has a fixed-fee contract, so the extension of time on the project won't cause a cost overrun.

"If we meet the July date, we'll still be in good shape," said Schipp. "The next construction contract will be award in the fall of 1995."

Twenty four of the 51 cells of the coffer dam have been completed. The coffer dam is a watertight structure to hold the river back while a new lock is built.

The Olmsted dam project is the largest public works program in the history of Southern Illinois and the most expensive single public works project ever attempted by the Army Corps of Engineers.

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 dam project, which is about 1.8 miles downstream from Dam 53 and will replace Dams 52 and 53 on the Ohio River, started as an $800 million project when the bill was introduced a number of years ago by then-Illinois congressman Kenneth Gray and U.S. Rep. Carroll Hubbard Jr., D-Ky.

The dams that will be replaced are 70 years old. The normal life of a lock and dam is about 50 years, according to the Corps. If anything happens to shut down either of the existing facilities, Ohio River traffic would be brought to its knees. Corps officials say this section of the Ohio River sees more than 10,000 tows a year and handles more than 100 million tons of goods.

The section of the Ohio is the busiest stretch because of "downbound and upbound" traffic from the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, according to Corps officials. "And the traffic is projected to double by the completion date of the project," he said.

The new facility will consist of two 1,200-by-110-foot locks adjacent to the Illinois bank and a gated dam. The gated section of the dam will be submerged to allow tows to cross over it during high water. Corps officials say that is the reason there will be no road across the dam.