COLUMBUS, OH -- Lock #2 of the Muskingum River Parkway State Park, located at Devola, will close temporarily on April 15 for repairs, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR).
The lock is scheduled to reopen by May 18 when the rest of the river's lock and dam navigation system opens for the 2002 boating season. Boat traffic will be halted through Lock #2 during the repair period.
Lock #2 is the first lock on the Muskingum River north of the Ohio River. A study conducted by ODNR last fall determined that weather had severely damaged its upstream gates, posing a hazard to watercraft passing through.
Starting April 15, the W.M. Brode Construction Company of Newcomerstown, will begin a $40,000 project to reinforce the gates. The temporary repair precedes a full-scale renovation of the lock that is scheduled to begin in late fall when river traffic wanes.
That renovation, slated to cost $2 million, will close the lock for a year while workmen replace both the upstream and downstream gates and the lock's historic valve system. They will also repair the lock's masonry walls; stabilize its embankment; and construct a wheelchair-accessible fishing area and new restrooms nearby.
Also in the fall, ODNR will begin a $4 million renovation to Lock #4 at Beverly. That renovation, which will include repairs to a nearby feeder canal, will close the lock to boat traffic for 18 months. All the projects are part of ODNR's routine maintenance plan on the parkway's 160-year-old navigation system.
The parkway's 10 hand-operated locks are recognized as one of America's great engineering accomplishments and were designated a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in July 2001. In its day, the system of locks and dams, extending 112 miles through southeastern Ohio, helped open the state and the entire Midwest to trade and development. Today, it serves the needs of more than 7,000 recreational boaters each year.