Speaker of the house Dan Rayfield has appointed Representative James Hieb (R-Canby) as a non-voting advisor to the 11-member Willamette Falls Locks Authority.

In 2021, HB 2564 established the Willamette Falls Locks Authority as “a public corporation with the mission to establish ownership, oversight, and management of the Willamette Falls Locks project for the purposes of enhancing the economic vitality of Oregon through facilitating the resiliency and navigability of the Willamette River and repairing, maintaining, upgrading and operating the Willamette Falls Locks project…for commercial, transportation, recreational, cultural, history, heritage and tourism purposes.“ The 11-member Authority will assume ownership of the locks after the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) completes necessary repairs.

USACE will continue to oversees the locks until seismic repairs are completed. The official transfer of ownership to the Willamette Falls Locks Authority is expected to be in 2026. This will allow time to perform geotechnical explorations involving drilling a series of holes to investigate the systems substructure and ensure seismic anchors installed throughout the repairs have been properly designed.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

The Willamette Falls Locks Authority will oversee the ongoing refurbishments and preserve the water table for renewable energy generation at PGE’s Sullivan Power Plant. Steelhead and salmon habitat upriver will also benefit from repairing the locks.


--Ritch Hanneman

Post Date: 2023-11-05 12:41:39

Last Update: 2023-11-07 15:19:41