Here’s some bad news for anyone planning for the Great Loop or cruising in the Midwest next summer. Many of the locks along the Illinois Waterway, running from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, will be closed for repairs and no vessels will be allowed through.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operates the eight lock and dam sites along the Waterway, and it closed some of them for short periods of time earlier this year. It has announced the dates for major repairs in 2020 and again in 2023, and said that “during the scheduled closures, no vessels will be able to pass through the affected locks.”
There is an exception at the LaGrange and Peoria locks if the water levels are high enough that wicket portions of the dams could be lowered, allowing vessels to pass around the dams without using the locks, but even so you won’t be able to pass through the other locks.
Here’s the Army Corps’ schedule for 2020:
LaGrange Lock and Dam: Full closure July 1 to Sept. 30.
Peoria Lock and Dam: Full closure July 6 to Sept. 30.
Starved Rock Lock and Dam: Full closure July 1 to Oct. 29.
Marseilles Lock and Dam: Full closure July 6 to Oct. 29.
Dresden Island & Brandon Road Lock and Dam: Partial closure July 6 to Oct. 3 and Oct. 4 to Oct. 24; Full closure Oct. 4 to Oct. 24.
The closures will present a challenge to anyone preparing for the Great Loop or cruising in that part of the country. One option is start early and get through all the locks before July 1. But even that is not a sure thing, since spring flooding can cause the Army Corps to close individual locks. And for anyone starting from the east coast, the New York State Canals don’t open until May 15, so you would have just six weeks to get to Chicago and then through all the Illinois Waterway locks to the Mississippi.
Other options for trailerable boats include going around the closure. Larger vessels can hire a commercial trucking service. Still, as I know from my own experience on the Great Loop a few summers ago on a Beneteau 34, the Illinois Waterway is a unique experience, and it would be a shame to miss it. Read more:
https://www.mvr.usace.army.mil/Missions/Navigation/Navigation-Status/
