Chickamauga Lock Construction Project to Increase Transportation Efficiency Nine Fold

Tennessee Congressman Zach Wamp and two local senators got a first hand look at the progress of the Chickamauga Lock building project Monday.

The $374,000,000 construction project is in phase two.

A coffer dam is under construction to clear and drain an area in the river so construction on the lock can begin.

The current Lock is the smallest on the Tennessee River system, often causing bottlenecks in the transportation system.

Wamp say the new lock will be nine times faster and more efficient, "It keeps the TN River open to commerce and navigation and let me tell you, if it ever closed we would have major problems with over 200 thousand more 18 wheel trucks on the roads in the East which we can't afford."

Construction of the lock itself should begin in the next fifteen months with an expected completion date of 2014.