1973 100mw Ozark-Jeta Taylor Lock and Dam on Arkansas River near Ozark, AR

(Satellite)

Street View, Feb 2024

"The Ozark-Jetta Taylor Lock and Dam is approximately 2,500 feet (762 m) long, 42 feet (13 m) high and has a structural volume of 120,000 cubic yards (91,747 cubic metres). The reservoir has a normal storage capacity of 129,000 acre-ft (159,119 Ml) and maximum capacity of 148,400 acre-ft (183,048 Ml). The dam has a 750 feet (229 m) wide controlled spillway with a maximum discharge capacity of 570000 cubic feet per second (16141 cubic metres per second)." [DamsOfTheWorld]

USACE_photo, Tomas Rofkahr
"Headed down the Arkansas, a barge locks through at the Ozark-Jetta Taylor Lock and Dam. Located at mile 308 of the river, the Ozark lock and dam is just one unit of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System (MKARNS) that originates at the Port of Catoosa in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Running southeast through Oklahoma and Arkansas to the Mississippi River, the MKARNS ensures a 9-foot navigable channel for commercial barge traffic. The MKARNS is a 'high-use' waterway system that routinely sees more than 10 million tons of traffic a year."
[I wonder why the towboat is pushing on a side barge instead of the center barge.]

The photo above shows that the locks have the standard width of 110', but it must be longer than 600' to take 9 barges and a towboat. I include the scale in this satellite image because it implies the lock is 800' long.

Satellite

dvids
"Ozark Lake covers 10,600 acres of water area at Mean Sea Level (MSL) elevation 372.0 feet. A land area of 6,349 acres surrounds the lake and extends around the shoreline for a distance of 173 miles."

The power plant was built with five 20mw slant-axis turbines. A slant-axis turbine is a recent design that "allows more generation to be packed into a smaller area." But they have proven to be a maintenance nightmare. Rehab work started in 2005 and several problems were encountered which stretched out the rehab work to 2021. One of the problems was construction---the 26' (8m) water passages were not "centered."  "The solution, in this case, was to develop a massive reverse lathe/boring bar to go through the slow and exacting work of scraping out and milling the water passage. It was a huge task – and one that they found themselves having to do five more times." [issuu, unfortunately, the links for the three photos are broken.]

May 2025 Flood

Note the hydraulic jump.

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