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3D Satellite)
The 1963 road across the top was removed in 2017 because a UCEB (Ugly Concrete Eyesore Bridge) replaced it.
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TVA
"Fort Loudoun Reservoir, located on the Tennessee River at Knoxville, is the uppermost in the chain of nine TVA reservoirs that form a continuous navigable channel from there to Paducah, Kentucky, 652 miles away....It has a flood-storage capacity of 111,000 acre-feet....Barges passing through the Fort Loudoun lock carry about half a million tons of cargo a year."
Fort Loudoun Lock commented on a similar photo in a post:
Modified tainter gate design at Fort Loudoun Dam with "split" capability where the gate can be operated in 2 different sections or both sections moved together as one gate. (View here is downstream side of dam)
[Other comments indicate the two white rectangles on top are cranes that manually open the gates.
I'd like to find a photo with just the top section raised. I looked at all of the photos collected here and the gates don't look like they are split. So I'm confused.] |
The lock is just 360' x 60', but it has a 70' lift. "Fort Loudoun Dam is a hydroelectric facility. It has four generating units with a summer net dependable capacity of 151 megawatts. Net dependable capacity is the amount of power a dam can produce on an average day, minus the electricity used by the dam itself." [
TVA] When built, the dam had a nameplate capacity of 144.5 MW. [
GEO] The turbines have been upgraded because the current nameplate capacity has to be higher than the net capacity of 151 MW. And because a photo below shows one of the old turbines is on display. Upgrades began in 2008. [
news-herald]
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USACE
The highway bridge over the dam was added in 1963. |
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Fort Loudoun Lock posted
As of 815pm this evening (Sunday, 9/24 [2023]) the M/V Kelly Lee has finished locking through at Fort Loudoun Lock and has departed the upper guard wall. The lock is fully available at this time for recreational boaters! 🙂 Here are some Kelly Lee action pics sent in by our FB followers. Also, we exceeded 8,000 followers on this Fort Loudoun Lock Facebook page over the weekend! 🙂 Yay! Thanks to all for the support, sending us great content and the continuing interest/enthusiasm in our navigation mission on the gorgeous Tennessee River! |
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0:36 video @ 0:04
It's a beautiful day, but more rain is coming. The region is forecasted to receive up to 3 inches of rainfall this week. As a result, we are recovering flood storage at many of our tributary dams and spilling excess water at all 9 dams on the Tennessee River.
📸: Fort Loudoun Dam |
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Kevin Lackey posted
J.E. Potter coming out of Ft Louden lock on the Tenn River.
Robert Sampley: Good boat for its size.
[To push three barges through this lock, the boat had to be less than 60'.
A lot higher resolution via TSLA] |
The above is looking upstream, this one is looking downstream.
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Fort Loudoun Lock posted
The sun 🌞 & warm weather today resulted in a couple of pontoons deciding to lock downbound at Fort Loudoun Lock to enjoy the gorgeous Tennessee River. 🙂 If you are docked up on Fort Loudoun or Tellico Lakes please consider coming to see us, locking through the lock and enjoying the scenery downriver a bit. Our lock operators enjoy working with the recreational boaters so don't be a stranger! 🙂 |
The lock can hold just one jumbo barge and its towboat.
The gates are still opening in this photo. And we can see the new bridge.
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Fort Loudoun Lock posted
An upbound recreational vessel being raised up / locked upstream inside our lock chamber yesterday at Fort Loudoun Lock. The upper concrete miter sill & steel upper miter gates holding the lake above. We're so appreciative & glad to share these wonderful pics that our many enthusiastic stakeholders see fit to send to us!
🙂 📸 Credit ~ Edward Upchurch
Pickwick Lock shared
Nice photo from one of our stakeholders locking through yesterday at Fort Loudoun Lock.
The lock chamber in the photo is 60 ft wide and 360 ft long. Just imagine being in Pickwick's big lock at 110 ft wide and 1000 ft long. |
Fort Loudoun Lock
posted two photos with the comment: hese are the two different views you would see from inside the lock chamber at Fort Loudoun Lock with a 72' max lift/drop if/when you decided to lock through upbound/downbound in your recreational vessel. Don't let the large miter gates make you too wary, because everyone who visits us reports a "fun, safe, and enjoyable locking experience! 🙂 "
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This May 2018 capture shows the new bridge exists and the road across the dam has been removed.
The current Google Maps satellite image is rather old because the switch between old and new bridges was done in July 2017 and cost $71m. The TVA refused to let the old bridge stand as a trail bridge because it "deemed the structure unable to withstand a cataclysmic flood or earthquake and too costly to upgrade its construction." [
KonxNews]
The new US-321 bridge took a lot of curves out of the road.
Philip caught the dam spilling water. This is another reminder that 2019 was "wet" almost everywhere in the US.
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iidosee, Nov 2020
Note the old turbine. |
Note that they sometimes fine tune the spillage.
When the dam is not spilling water, boats get rather close to the outflow of the power plant.
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Fort Loudoun Lock posted
This beautiful picture was taken this past Friday [Apr 28, 2023] evening from the downstream side of Fort Loudoun Lock & Dam. The powerhouse is on the far left and Fort Loudoun Lock is on the far right on the opposite side of the river. Special 📸 credit and big thanks to our local Facebook supporter, Mr. Brad Pritchett, for sending this one along to us! |
They also dammed the Tellico River to force the water from that river to flow through the hydropower plant.
As part of that river diversion, they also dug a short canal between the rivers.
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| Satellite, the canal is in the lower-right corner. |
Fort Loudoun Lock
posted three photos with the comment: "The Motor Vessel Gene Neal is locking through this morning with four big ones! These red flag barges are each 295' to 300' long and 54' feet wide! These type of barges make it difficult and often impossible to lock recreational vessels in between lockage cuts of these barges at these smaller 360' x 60' locks. Recreational boaters needing to lock through today should call us for an update and plan on the early afternoon at the earliest as far as this Gene Neal departing the lock. (Lock Operator on duty 865-986-2762 - Option 1)"
Elvis Elvis: Blame Marathon for demanding 4 barges at a time.
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Screenshot
The USCG Cutter, "Ouachita" locked through upbound again today headed up to Knoxville. This US Coast Guard vessel performs buoy & day marker maintenance for the main navigation channel. |
Pickwick Lock
shared three photos posted by TVA with the comment: "Rainfall from the remnants of TS Fred continues to fall across the eastern half of the Tennessee River basin. Areas along the mountains of Tennessee, N Carolina, and Georgia have seen upwards of 2-6+ inches. Tributary reservoirs like Fontana, Blue Ridge, Nottely, Chatuge, and Douglas are storing water, and lake levels are rising. As a result of high local inflows and runoff from the mountains, we are going into spill operations at Fort Loudoun and Chickamauga Dams on the upper Tennessee River."
[The third photo is Fort Loudoun instead of Chickamauga, so I'm assuming the other two are here also.]
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TVA posted three photos with the comment: "Fort Loudoun Dam is celebrating its 79th birthday with some upgrades to Unit 1! The original turbine and generator rotor are being pulled to make way for a brand new turbine and allow new generator components to be installed. The upgrades will keep Fort Loudoun providing clean, renewable power for decades to come."
Max Jolley: 80 years out of a turbine and generator 😃 Holy cow.....
[It will be interesting to see of the new stuff lasts 80 years.]
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TVA
posted four photos with the comment: "Our dams and the equipment that runs them are massive in scale! During the construction of Fort Loudoun Dam, large pieces of equipment like the four Kaplan turbines, some weighing up to 182 tons, were lifted in place by the dam's gantry crane. Fort Loudoun is the uppermost of nine hydroelectric dams and navigation locks on the Tennessee River"
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David Westerfield: Knocker Wrench. Common Practice! |
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Fort Loudoun Lock
posted three photos with the comment: "A rare sighting of the James H & River Salvage Company locking through upbound late this afternoon at Fort Loudoun Lock. This unit is headed up the Little Tennessee River for some salvage operations of one kind or another. When we see this vessel it usually means that a large boat or barge has sunk someplace, but this unit has all kinds of different capability. Stay safe, James H!"
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1 of 5 posted by Fort Loudoun Lock
We locked this M/V Raleigh tow with "Little Clyde" helper boat headed upbound yesterday at Melton Hill Lock on the Clinch River with a new electrical transformer headed to the TVA Bull Run Fossil Plant. What goes up must come back down! 🙂 Today we locked this same tow downbound at Melton Hill Lock with the old transformer that was replaced. Credit to our Fort Loudoun Lock maintenance staff for keeping Melton Hill operational & properly maintained so we can successfully do our part to contribute to the reliability of power, which in turn benefits the larger economy of the Tennessee Valley! |
Fort Loudoun Lock
posted two photos with the comment: "The motor vessel,
Gene Neal began locking earlier this evening. Here's a couple of pics of this tow arriving in the lower approach area & beginning to lock their first barge at Fort Loudoun Lock. This vessel will be locking all night continuing into the early morning hours. The lock should be fully available again for recreational boaters when we open back up at 7am tomorrow morning. 📸 🤳 to Cathy Selber Thanks, Cathy!! "
Michael Pruitt: Why does it take that long for this particular vessel?
Fort Loudoun Lock: Michael Pruitt Standard jumbo commercial barges are most common at 195'-200' long x 35' wide and can fit in the chamber along with a smaller/shorter towboat to push them through if needed. However, these tows like the Gene Neal with larger red flag barges are 295' - 300' in length x 54' wide and no towboat can fit inside the lock chamber together with these red flag barges. As such, we have to pull them out one at a time with our tow haulage unit, which takes longer. (Our lock chamber is only 360' x 60' - same story at Watts Bar & Chickamauga Locks) Some recent changes in our operations to improve safety has also contributed to longer lockages for these vessels. Also, it many times is difficult to lock recreational boaters in between each of the lockages. The width of 54' takes up any/all available space for a recreational boat to navigate around to enter the lock chamber. (Difficult to explain on FB, but easy to see if/when you're in your boat & want to get locked through. 🙂 Hope that helps.....
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Cathy Selber commented on the above post
10 pm. 4 hours and still 2 barges to get through! Sure is a long night for that crew!! |
Fort Loudoun Lock
posted three photos with the comment: "Some final pics from the Pinta from her lock through earlier this morning at Fort Loudoun Lock. ~ 📸 credit to @DanPodPhotography Thanks, Dan Podsobinski"
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Fort Loudoun Lock posted, cropped
The Pinta departed Fort Loudoun Lock at 8am this morning (10/31) headed downriver towards Watts Bar Lock on her way to her final East Tennessee River area stop at the pier in downtown Chattanooga along the riverfront where this vessel will remain from November 3rd through the 19th! |
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Brandy Fraser commented on the above psot
We visited last week so cool
Ellen Campbell Marsh: I hope people will visit the Pinta while she is docked. Fascinating to see how small it was and imagine the voyages in a vessel this size across the Atlantic Ocean. |
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| Tony Russel commented on the above post |
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1 of 4 photos posted by Fort Loudoun Lock
The Bearcat locking upbound this afternoon with 1 loaded barge on her way to Knoxville. Safe travels, Bearcat crew! |
Four Loudoun Lock
posted five photos with the comment:
Here's some great up close pics with instructional captions below each pic for an upbound pontoon lockage that occurred yesterday. If you are a beginner the captions offer some helpful information to make your upstream lockage a fun, safe, and enjoyable experience. Once again special thanks to
Kristina Jacobs Gregory & friends for taking the time to send these pics for all to benefit from!! Thanks, folks! Safety first!! (The downstream lockage is very similar & we will do this again some other time for the downstream lock through)
Nashville District Tennessee Valley  |
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When locking upstream the #1 floating mooring bitt on the right hand / starboard side of the lock furthest upstream in the lock chamber offers the LEAST amount of turbulence while the lock is being filled. (If available) |
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This is a good mooring to the floating mooring bitt, but the line does not need to be cinched, but rather it can be looped around once. No matter which tie off method is used have a sharp knife 🔪🔪 in the boat so you can cut your line loose if it becomes fouled due to the floating mooring bitt not traveling up/down properly. (Extremely rare occurrence) |
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Easy to see the water line on the lock wall going upstream to give you an indication as to how close you are from the lock chamber being full. |
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Gotta have these bumpers (at least 2 if not 3 or 4) to protect your boat! Don't pull your floating mooring bitt line so tight that your boat wedges these bumpers between the boat & the wall. Allow a few extra inches for a gap so these bumpers can travel up/down & not get wedged. |
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Wait for the gates to be fully open & hear the horn blast from the lock operator before you begin to remove your mooring line from the floating mooring bitt & depart the lock chamber. |
On Jun 22, 2024, Fort Loudoun Lock had three tours. They were similar so these are from just the 1pm tour.
3 of 10 photos
posted by Fort Loudoun Lock with the comment: "Our 1pm lock tour group stayed safe, stayed hydrated, and braved the heat up on the lock walls today. This group learned from us and we learned a lot from them as well with some great comments, insights, and questions! One more group remaining at 3pm & it's a wrap for the 2024 public lock tours at Fort Loudoun Lock. A big shout-out to our outstanding partners with the Tennessee Valley Authority for such great support today as well!"
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Fort Loudoun Lock posted
On these busy weekends boaters will cooperate a little & breast up with each other to get several extra boats locked through on any particular lockage where multiple boats are waiting to lock through. The rule of thumb is the biggest boats tie off to each of the four (or how ever many) floating mooring bitts & then the smaller boats breast up in descending order by size whenever possible. It's not an absolute "must", but something to try for! 🙂 Remember to get those bumpers out too!! |
Fort Loudoun Lock
posted two photos with the comment: "The Rarity Bay Yacht Club locking through downbound to Watts Bar this morning. Great group of people!!! Most were first timers and did a fantastic job!!! See ya soon!!!"
Pickwick Lock
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Screenshot @ 0:09
When Mother Nature poured large amounts of rain in many areas of the region last week, engineers in our River Forecast Center and dedicated teams at each of our dams swung into action. By managing high volumes of water, stored stormwater at the large tributary dams, and releases from the dams on the Tennessee River, they reduced the potential for downstream flooding and helped avert more than $10 million in damage. Estimated flood damages averted: Fayetteville, TN - Elk River: $6,700,000 Chattanooga, TN - Tennessee River: $2,200,000 Clinton, TN - Clinch River: $2,200,000 |
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0:17 video
Here is a short video of a downbound lockage from the vantage point of a pontoon secured to a floating mooring bitt that happens to be closest to the lower miter gates. It shows a brief portion of the end of a proper lock through. Safety First - This pontoon waited until the gates were fully open AND they heard the horn blast before removing their mooring line from the floating mooring bitt. Great job! Video credit - Kristina Jacobs Gregory & friends! Thanks, folks! |
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Fort Loudoun Lock posted
Attention Recreational Boaters: The Motor Vessel Gene Neal is on her way back downriver from Knoxville this morning & is expected to begin locking here at Fort Loudoun Lock in the mid-afternoon timeframe today. As such, recreational boaters needing to lock through Fort Loudoun Lock today are encouraged to do so prior to 2PM if at all possible. This vessel will occupy the lock for 10-11 hours once they begin locking with very limited opportunities to lock recreational boaters in between cuts of barges. Feel free to call us often & lock through early today! 😉 865-986-2762 - Option 1 / PLEASE SHARE THIS POST ~ 📸 credit to Bryce Vaughn Thanks, Bryce! |
Fort Loudoun Lock posted seven photos with the comment: "As previously reported, the Gene Neal arrived earlier this afternoon & will be locking barges until very late tonight. Recreational boaters can call the lock operator on duty to inquire about any possible timeframes to get locked through, but those opportunities will be very limited. The lock "should" be available for recreational boaters all day tomorrow with minimal delays. (Saturday, 9/21) Lock Operator on duty: 865-986-2762 - option 1"
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TVA
posted three photos with the comment: "We have some serious dam work being done at Fort Loudoun! 🏗️🛠️
Construction crews are working to replace fourteen spillway gate hoists safely. The large crane on a floating barge is used to place the huge components on the dam. This work will continue for the next 7 months as our skilled team works to get these crucial upgrades done!"
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