Congress presses Corps on Chickamauga Lock delivery after uncompetitive bids; agency outlines steps to boost competition

Lawmakers and the Army Corps discussed setbacks and recovery plans for the Chickamauga Lock replacement during the subcommittee hearing, with the Corps saying it has revised its contracting and outreach approach to attract more qualified bidders.

Chickamauga Lock is a high-profile inland waterways replacement project; delays have raised concerns about workforce attraction, contract competitiveness and delivering a major navigation asset on schedule. "So the lesson learned from the unsuccessful last project award is we have a targeted marketing campaign that we've had ongoing to reach out to the 26 largest prime contractors," Lt. Gen. Butch Graham told the committee, describing a concentrated effort to attract firms with sufficient bonding capacity.

Graham said the district and division held virtual site visits with 74 attendees and multi-day on-site pre-proposal meetings that drew dozens of contractors. The Corps also consolidated inland lock design work at a single Inland Design Center to concentrate experience and stated it is consolidating contracting and construction oversight into two districts (Pittsburgh and Rock Island) to generate "reps and sets" and improve institutional knowledge.

On timetable, Graham told the committee the Corps was "confident that we'll get that this contract awarded this summer, and we'll get this lock up into operation by '28." He also said the Nashville district will retain close oversight of Chickamauga during construction.

Committee members asked whether the Corps was applying lessons from Chickamauga across other inland waterway projects and whether changes could reduce future cost growth. Graham emphasized engineering maturity as a prerequisite to authorization and repeated the Corps' commitment to request authorization only when engineering reaches the 35% design level.

Representative Fleischmann, the chairman, cited a $32,190,000 FY25 work plan allocation for Chickamauga and said he planned to visit the site. Witnesses said the FY25 work plan allocated funds to advance the final contract option for Chickamauga and other inland navigation priorities.

The discussion highlighted industry constraints: a limited pool of large contractors with bonding capacity and the need to attract labor to remote project sites. Graham described targeted outreach, virtual and in-person briefings, and concentrating design effort as the Corps' response.