Posted on December 13, 2016
All navigation locks on the lower Columbia and Snake rivers will be out of service for 14 weeks beginning Monday, as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducts extensive maintenance.
The closure was announced in May 2015, and will affect 359 miles of river from Portland to Lewiston, Idaho.
“Aging infrastructure sometimes requires extensive, non-routine repairs and improvements that cannot be completed within the traditional two-week annual routine maintenance outages,” said Hal Thomas, navigation business line manager for the Army Corps of Engineers Walla Walla District. “This work will improve the long-term functionality and safety of these locks, as well as the overall reliability of the Columbia-Snake river navigation system as a whole.”
Extended closures are unusual, Thomas said, and carefully coordinated between districts and industry. Recreational boaters, meanwhile, can choose from more than 50 shoreline launches managed by the Corps. For more information, visit www.nww.usace.army.mil.
Source: Wallowa County
