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Billions of dollars in construction delays to modernize the nation’s locks and dams are wearing thin on the river industry.

Not having a new Kentucky Lock is costing barge companies tens of millions in annual benefits, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. If the 1,200-foot lock were finished, tows would be able to pass through twice as quickly as the outdated 600-foot lock.

The same is true at Olmsted, Ill., where two 1,200-foot locks are projected to save more than $400 an hour in fuel, labor and other expenses to haul steel, coal, grain and other products.

Crews are expected to start building shells next winter at Olmsted into which concrete will be pumped to build the dam, project manager Larry Bibelhauser said. New Olmsted locks already are in place to replace deteriorating locks near Brookport and Mound City, Ill., that are the busiest in the nation.

If Olmsted were operational today, consumers would save $591 million annually in shipping costs, the corps estimates.

But because of federal funding shortfalls, both Kentucky and Olmsted are way behind schedule.

A U.S. Senate bill currently contains $22.3 million in fiscal 2009 for Kentucky Lock. Project manager Don Getty said that’s enough to keep current work on pace to move U.S. 62 and Paducah & Louisville Railway downstream to make room for the lock, but too little to award the first phase of the actual lock work.

“We haven’t been able to award the contract for the last year,” he said. “We’re looking at a 2016 completion date if we can start the upstream lock in 2010.”

Senate legislation contains $114 million for Olmsted. Although the project is scheduled to be completed in 2014, chronic delays have pushed the cost to about $2.1 billion — 271 percent higher than the $775 million that Congress originally authorized.

“Clearly, something is seriously wrong with the way that construction of inland waterway lock and dam modernization projects is currently proceeding,” said Steve Little, president-CEO of Paducah-based Crounse Corporation. “This is a problem of serious import to anyone who cares about how government should perform on behalf of its citizens.”

Little made the statement April 30 while testifying before Congress as general counsel for the Waterways Council trade association. He was especially critical of a Bush administration proposal to charge towing companies increasing locking fees until 2013. The fees, which Little called taxes, would then rise or fall depending on the balance of the Inland Waterway Trust Fund.

Half the money for river-improvement projects comes from the federal government and half from the fund, into which barge firms pay about $90 million annually in diesel-fuel tax. The fund has declined from $412 million since 2002 and is expected to be depleted within two years.

Little called for an examination of why it takes so much longer to build waterway projects than it did 20 years ago. “The current system forces the industry to pay for these significantly delayed projects and extraordinary cost escalations,” he said.

He said the council wants the government to drop the industry’s share of the costs to 25 percent and draw the rest from the general fund.

“If one makes the adjustment Waterways Council is seeking, every American who turns on a light, eats a bowl of breakfast cereal or drives a car will benefit from what you’ve done,” he told the House Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment.

Joe Walker can be contacted at 575-8656.