Operations and maintenance crewmembers at John Day Dam, located on the Columbia River near Rufus, Oregon, look down into the dam’s navigation lock July 26 as engineers inspect the lock’s upstream gate, which malfunctioned July 25 due to a broken guide wheel. While the Corps works to fix the 215,000-pound vertical lift gate, it’s continuing to pass vessels through the lock using a floating bulkhead—a wall that can be moved in and out of place with a tugboat and essentially used as a temporary gate. Currently, vessel lockages, which typically take about 45 minutes, are taking twice as long. The
Operations and maintenance crewmembers at John Day Dam, located on the Columbia River near Rufus, Oregon, look down into the dam’s navigation lock July 26 as engineers inspect the lock’s upstream gate, which malfunctioned July 25 due to a broken guide wheel. While the Corps works to fix the 215,000-pound vertical lift gate, it’s continuing to pass vessels through the lock using a floating bulkhead—a wall that can be moved in and out of place with a tugboat and essentially used as a temporary gate. Currently, vessel lockages, which typically take about 45 minutes, are taking twice as long. The guide wheels, two of which are attached to each side of the gate, act as rollers that keep the gate aligned as it moves up and down through its normal range of motion during lockages.
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Photo credit: © Operation 2022 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: columbia, dam, day, engineers, john, lock, navigation, repairs, river
