More than $45 million are going toward the Kentucky Lock Addition Project, making it’s completion more of a reality.
Congress set aside $30 million more for fiscal year 2016 than it put toward the project last year.
A boat owned by Tennessee Valley Towing moves barges through Kentucky Lock every day. At times, it can take 10 to 12 hours before a boat can begin to go through the lock and costs $13,000 a day in fuel alone.
Congress is setting aside millions of dollars for a project to build an additional 1,200 foot lock.
Right now, a tow boat and six barges or nine barges without a tow boat can go through the lock.
With the new lock, a tow boat could take 15 barges through, more than doubling what the boats can take now.
The project, which started in 1998, could be completed by 2023 if it stays on track.
The entire project is estimated to cost about $870 million.
So far, about $410 million have been spent on it.