LaGrange Lock and Dam on Illinois River

(John A. Weeks III; Satellite)

This is the last dam before the river joins the Mississippi 80 miles further downstream.

This aerial photo shows the dam with the wicket gates in the down position. The other wicket-gate dam on the Illinois River is the Peoria Lock and Dam. Hopefully, those notes explain that the gates are down when the river level is high and that they are raised when the river level is low.

USACE

A satellite image caught the dam with the gates in the raised position. It also caught a double locking operation in progress.

Satellite

Zooming in, we see the tender that raises and lowers the gates. It is moored by the Tainter gate that is used to control the river level.

Satellite

An aerial view of a double locking and rthe aised wicket gates.

ICE

JohnWeeks

 

Tracy Brasel posted
Lagrange locks

Comments on Tracy's post

Kyle Perry commented on Tracy's post
Now that’s a wicket lifter

 

Typically, in the Spring the river runs high and the wicket gates are down.

Google Earth, Mar 2005

And in the late Summer the river is low and the gates are up.

Google Earth, Sep 2005

And some years it floods and putting the gates down does not provide enough flow.

Google Earth, Apr 1998

USACE, RI District posted

The countdown is on! The 2023 Consolidated Lock Closures on the Illinois Waterway are scheduled to begin in one month! On June 1, the locks at Brandon Road, Dresden Island and Marseilles will fully close to river traffic for much needed maintenance.

Click here to find out more information about the closures and the timeline:   https://www.mvr.usace.army.mil/Missions/Navigation/Navigation-Status/

(Note: This photo was taken at LaGrange Lock and Dam during the 2020 Illinois Waterway Consolidated Closures.)

Fort Loudoun Lock shared
If you are planning a trip that includes traveling up the Illinois River/Illinois Waterway in the near future, then please check the consolidated lock closures that are set to commence on June 1st in just one month!

I was surprised that they never did get rid of all of the water from the lock. When I see photos of the dewatered locks on the Upper Mississippi or the Soo Locks, the bottom of the lock is dry. But then I remembered that this lock is open 365 days of the year. That is, it is not regularly dewatered during the Winter season.

2:58 video @ 0:52

enr [paycount], photo courtesy of AECOM Shimmick
The project cost $117m.
"Heavy equipment within the tight footprint of the riverside lock and dam included a 300-ton crane on the land side, a 300-ton crane upstream and a 300-ton crane downstream of the bulkheads and the lock. A 150-ton crane was located on a barge outside of the riverside wall and two 60-ton cranes down in the chamber. On the land wall there were two 130-ton cranes and another 60-ton crane. These cranes were used to place the lock armor as well as new concrete for the lock walls, which the cranes placed using buckets."

Since this lock is next to a wicket dam, you know that the river level varies a lot during the year. That is, the lock getting flooded is the norm rather than the exception.

Specifically, "the LaGrange Lock and Dam is unique. When the Illinois River rises above normal pool elevation, the entire lock and dam goes underwater. This happens regularly and can sometimes go underwater to a depth of 14 FT, where towboat traffic can navigate over the top." This is why this dam uses hydraulic, instead of electric, equipment to operate the gates and Tainter valves. [Brennan]

enr [paycount], photo courtesy of AECOM Shimmick
"The 1939 lock and dam’s concrete had deteriorated so much that grass was growing through it."

jfbrennan
They used several 10" electrical pumps to dewater the lock chamber.

While Shimmik resurfaced the concrete on the interior, Brennan resurfaced the exterior. Since the exterior wall is still under water when the chamber is dewatered, they designed custom box-type cofferdams to facilitate the replacement of 18" of wall concrete and steel armor plating.

jfbrennan

Note the seals on three edges of this Tainter gate. This gate is one of the four valves that control the flow in to and out of the chamber.

jfbrennan

Dam construction is one of the specialities of Brennan.

This content was copied from a redundant La Grange Dam post.

Satellite

Pages 2 and 3 of the March 30, 2017 USDA Grain Transportation report (source link) indicates the locks will be closed 10 hours each day between June and August. Fortunately, this is a low season for soybeans and corn shipments during this period.

Note that the report indicates that about a third of the grain for Lock 26 on the Mississippi comes from the Illinois Waterway and about two-thirds comes from the upper Mississippi River.

This is a wicket dam and this satellite image indicates the river flow is low because the gates are up. I assume the barge parked next to the Tainter gate is the tender that is used to raise and lower the gates.

One of John's photos shows the gates were also up when he visited. And it includes a view of the tender.

John A. Weeks III

Satellite

I checked Bing's satellite image to see if the gates were down. They were not. That image was also taken during low river levels.

The additional barges and towboats are of interest. Given all of the pickup trucks along the lock entrance (workers), it appears they are doing some maintenance. It just occurred to me that they don't have to wait until night for "off hours" because towboat crews work around the clock. They can do maintenance during the day without changing the impact on the barge traffic.