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Open House Held at Lock
& Dan #1
U. S. Army Corps of Engineers
Wilmington District held an Open House at Lock & Dam
#1 Saturday to show interested neighbors and other
users what the construction, now underway, involves
and what the results will be.
The boat launch and picnic area
is closed to the public for the duration of
the project in the Cape Fear River. Recreation
vessels, including canoes
and kayaks, will be able to transit the area, via
the lock or by portage, on a very limited basis.
Reservations should be made well in advance.
The project involves repairing a
40 foot deep scour hole from almost a hundred years
of water pouring over the low-head dam. If
uncorrected,
this could ultimately lead to dam failure, according
to a news release
from the Corps of Engineers.

Phil
Edge and Susan Clizbe
US Corps of Engineer Employees
The project is expected to cost
around $3 million and is funded by the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
(ARRA).
Work began June 21. As
many as 50 heavy trucks a day will deliver rock
fo the project. Work will be ongoing six days
a week, twelve hours a day.
There are three lock and dams on
the Cape Fear River, all in Bladen County.
Over the years, travel on the river has gone from
commercial to recreational. Oldtimers tell of days
when logs were strapped together and floated down
the river to their final destination.
Petroleum products were moved up the river from
the port at Wilmington.
Today most of the users are for
recreational purposes. Recently, a
Fayetteville
based tour boat was added.
Another important role for the
#1 locks is it serves as a barrier for salt water
intrusion.
Fish travel up the river from
the later part of March until July 1. If the
river is high, many fish can maneuver on their own
by going over the dam, some cannot and if the river
is low, none can get upstream. Lock & dams #1 and
#2 are open to help with spawning.
As with other agencies, lack of
funding in recent years has cut back on manpower.
Today a single lockmaster is in charge of three
sites. Phil Edge
of Cumberland County has 21 years on the job.
Tom Charles will be the first
Park Ranger for the 3 sites. He will be on the
job in mid August.
Future plans call for the Navy
to return in September for training on the river.
Long range plans will likely see
the Corps turning control of sites on the Cape Fear
River over to the state of North Carolina.
To book lockage, call Lockmaster
Edge at 910-483-7746 or Tom Charles at 910-874-0883.
For more information on the Cape
Fear River and other Corps of Engineers
projects along the
eastern seaboard click on
www.saw.usace.army.mil.
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