Little Goose navigation lock finished ahead of schedule

Inland commercial navigation between Lewiston and Portland resumed about 4:30 p.m. April 21 with the official reopening of the navigation lock at Little Goose Lock and Dam on the lower Snake River near Starbuck, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials announced.

The lock was kept out of service following the annual maintenance outage during March when cracks in the steel of a gudgeon arm assembly on the top of the lock’s downstream south gate leaf were tested and determined to be unsafe for continued operation.

Initial emergency-repair schedules estimated a return to service by May 1.

“First of...