The Kentucky Lock project is a multi-phase Navigational Lock project located in Grand Rivers, Kentucky, at Mile 22.4 of the Tennessee River.  It is a Federal Government project with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the Inland Waterways Trust Fund serving as the major stakeholders. The project endeavors to construct a new 110’ x 1200’ lock on the landward side of the existing lock, which is 110’ x 600’ in size.  The locks are owned by TVA and operated/maintained by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).   Thalle Construction Company's first involvement occurred when we were awarded an early phase of the project known as Upstream Monoliths.  Thalle commenced construction on April 12, 2010 and achieved one of the first major milestones of the overall project by completing construction on May 29, 2017.

 

The Upstream Monolith project completion represents the first in many steps necessary to increase the capacity of the existing lock, which at its current length, makes it impossible for most barges to navigate through in one pass.  This increases the time for a normal lock through to four or more hours, significantly limiting the number of commercial tows daily.  The addition of the new lock, when fully completed, will nearly eliminate wait time and increase the efficiency of the transportation of goods on the Tennessee River.  This increase in efficiency at this location is critical, and helps bolster a key component of American infrastructure and maintain our competitive edge on a global stage.

 

Prior to construction of the structure, Thalle completed the soil and rock excavation necessary to provide a solid foundation for the project and also completed construction of a grout curtain below the surface to cut off the flow of underground water.  An onsite concrete batch plant was constructed and commissioned to provide the 130,000 cubic yards of concrete required for the first 9 monoliths.  For several years, Thalle worked tirelessly to install the steel reinforcement, formwork, fabricated embedded metal items and place concrete resulting in the upstream monoliths of the new structure.  Following the completion of the these monoliths, Thalle completed additional steps necessary to ensure that Kentucky Lake could be retained upstream of the new structure by installing new mitre gates, earth fill connecting the landward side to the new structure, and installed gates within the culverts of the new structure.

 

This project was completed with high hopes that Thalle would be returning and take part in more work to complete this amazing mega project.  In the Fall 2022, Thalle was awarded the construction project to complete the next phase of the project known as Downstream Monoliths. Click here to read more about the Downstream Monoliths, currently under construction.

Thalle is an industry leader in the construction of dams, locks, canals and reservoirs.  If you would like to see more examples of our work in this market, click here.