Army Corps of Engineers officials are expected this fall to partially open new lock-and-dam system on the Ohio River between Illinois and Kentucky after 30 years of work.

 

Plans are that ships and barges be able to start using the Olmsted Locks and Dam in October, replacing a system dating to the 1920s.

 

The project to update the locks began in 1988, with an original completion date of 2013 and a price tag of $775 million. Project costs later increased to more than $3 billion.

 

Troubles with the existing Lock and Dam 52 downriver from Paducah, Kentucky, have led to some shipping companies avoiding the area near where the Ohio River flows into the Mississippi River, said Martin Hettel of American Commercial Barge Line.

 

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