Book Description

Lock and Dam 3 is located on the Red River, in a cutoff channel between 1967 river miles 140 and 142, and about 53 channel miles above John H. Overton Lock and Dam. The lock and dam will be the third lock in a series of five locks and dams designed to furnish the required maximum lift of 141 ft to provide year-round navigation on the Old and Red River Waterway from the Mississippi River to Shreveport, LA, a distance of 236 miles. The principal structures are an 84-ft-wide by 685-ft-long lock, a spillway containing six 60-ft-wide by 42-ft-high tainter gates, and a 315-ft-long fixed-crest weir adjacent to the gated spillway. The dam provides a navigation pool that extends upstream to Lock and Dam 4. The dam is operated to maintain a navigation pool of el 95.0 at the dam (all elevations (el) cited herein are in feet referred to the National Geodetic Vertical Datum). A fixed-bed model reproduced about 3.5 miles of the Red River and adjacent overbank from about 13,500 ft upstream to about 4,800 ft downstream of the dam to an undistorted scale of 1:100. Since Lock and Dam 3 was to be constructed in an excavated channel bypassing the natural river channel, it was important that the alignment of the channel and the arrangement of the lock and dam be satisfactory for navigation. The model investigation was concerned with evaluation of navigation conditions for proposed lock designs and development of modifications required to ensure satisfactory navigation conditions. The study identified any needed modifications to the navigation channel alignment, guard wall lengths, or remedial structures. Results of the investigation revealed that a system of structures was required to eliminate adverse current patterns and establish satisfactory navigation conditions for tows entering and leaving the upper lock approach.