River locks shut down for annual inspections

Locks in the navigation systems on the Snake River were originally scheduled to close to recreational and commercial river traffic for routine inspections by the Army Corps of Engineers at March 7 at 6 a.m. However, an upstream lock gate malfunction Thursday 5 at Little Goose Lock and Dam required operations officials to close the lock earlier than planned.

Because of Little Goose’s early lock closure and commercial traffic having already cleared the Snake River, the corps coordinated with shippers to maximize the unexpected opportunity to start annual maintenance a day earlier than originally scheduled.

All Snake River locks closed Friday. McNary and all Portland District locks remained on schedule and closed Saturday.

Locks in the corps’ Walla Walla District will be closed through Saturday, April 4.

Walla Walla District operations staff will perform routine inspections and maintenance on the locks as well as some non-routine work which will require more time to complete than the typical two-week long routine maintenance outage. The non-routine work includes, but is not limited to, gate structural repairs, machinery replacement and lock structure repairs.

During the navigation lock maintenance outage, work activities will require the suspension of public vehicle crossings at Lower Monumental and Little Goose dams. Lower Monumental will be closed to public vehicles now through March 27. Little Goose may experience temporary closures to public vehicle crossings to accommodate work activities as it becomes necessary.

Travelers are encouraged to check the dam-crossing information line for crossing updates. Lower Granite plans to remain open to public vehicle crossings throughout the lock outage.

To maintain safe and reliable passage through this navigation system, the corps districts coordinate these annual closures with inland shippers and cruise lines to achieve minimal impact to the industries that use the locks.