A mile of the Ohio River closes for six months to demolish a dam

The US Coast Guard is closing a section of the Ohio River for six months. This will block all vessel and person entry to protect workers during ongoing lock and dam demolition.

This is a small, temporary closure, but it is a concrete step in a much larger, multi-decade effort to modernize US inland waterways. The US Army Corps of Engineers has been working to replace aging locks and dams along major rivers like the Ohio, which were mostly built in the 1930s. These projects are slow and expensive, but they are essential for maintaining commercial navigation and flood control.