Riverkeeper working to move forward with Lock and Dam replacement project (Savannah: home, construction)

[Airforceguy]

The New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam is in bad shape, and is anything but new as it's name would lead you to believe. Under current federal laws, the Army Corps of Engineers is required to repair it, not to replace it.

The spot is popular for boaters and fisherman. Jarvis Hambrick is both, and after a long morning out on the water, he tows his boat from the water, packs up, and heads home with the catch of the day.

"This is a nice size, and they get a little bigger than this here," he explained, holding up the fish.

Recently, Hambrick has been putting his boat in on the Augusta side of the Lock and Dam, known more now for it's state of disrepair than what it was originally meant to do.

"It's been like that, I know, for about 30 years. I mean every five or six years, they come up and say they're going to close it down or something," he said.


A chain link fence keeps people from going on top of it, and it's been this way for a few years. But as time marches forward, the Riverkeeper says this huge structure is becoming more and more of a ticking time bomb.

"Currently no boats can get around here whatsoever, and no fish," said Tonya Bonitatibus, the Savannah Riverkeeper, "I mean, it might as well just be a solid wall all the way across the river."

In 2000, Bonitatibus explained, Congressman Charlie Norwood passed laws requiring the Lock and Dam be replaced. However, after 16 years, she says they're running out of options, and it is beyond repair. Now, with the Savannah Harbor deepening project downstream, they will need to create a way for fish to get around it so that project can move forward.

Bonitatibus says combining the two projects, into a rock dam, fish ladder, all while keeping the locks, would save millions, but only if they can clarify some language so that rehab can also mean replacement.

"It would be all rapids and the fish would be easily able to transition up. We would fix the locks," said Bonitatibus. She says separately, the fish ladder around the dam would cost $36 million, and the repairs to the Lock and Dam - easily $30 million.

She says if the new language goes through, construction on the rock dam and fish ladder combination could start as early as 2018.

Riverkeeper working to move forward with Lock and Dam replacement project