OLMSTED: ROAD WORK FOR DAM WILL CREATE 100 JOBS IN AREA

OLMSTED, Ill. -- There will be an influx of some new faces in the Olmsted area early next month.

When construction gets under way Jan. 4 on a three-mile road leading to the site of the new $1.1 billion Olmsted Lock and Dam project on the Ohio River, it will bring more than 100 new jobs to the area.

"The workers will come from local unions," said a J&W Allen Construction Co. spokesman. "We will be using about five or six local subcontractors with the project." The company will also buy locally as much as possible to "try and keep the dollar as local as we can."

The first contract for the first phase of the locks and dam project, to be built on the Ohio River near Olmsted in Pulaski County, was awarded to J&W Allen Construction Co. of Marion, which was awarded the $3.2 million contract by the Army Corps of Engineers to construct a three-mile access road, a resident engineer office and a visitor overlook facility at the project site.

The next phase of the Olmsted project is a coffer-dam, which will be constructed at an estimated cost of $90 million to $100 million. The contract for the coffer-dam will be awarded in February.

Being awarded the road contract came as no surprise to Walter Allen, one of the owners of the construction company.

"We have worked hard to obtain this contract," said Allen. "We met with the U.S. Department of Labor and Corps of Engineers to discuss the labor regulations for the job, and we have studied the requirements and goals for workers."

"This is a tremendous boost to our economy," said U.S. Rep. Glenn Poshard, D-Ill., who was on hand during a special ceremony to announce the first contract late last week. "This is a landmark day for Southern Illinois in our economic history. Allen is a local firm, and this contract alone should create up to 100 jobs.

"We have worked long and hard to give local businesses and workers every opportunity to win contracts on the Olmsted project," said Poshard. "This is the first in what I hope will be a long line of local awards."

The Olmsted Locks and Dam project will consist of two 1,200-by-100-foot locks connected by a 2,200-foot concrete dam, with a complete target date of 2006.

"We're probably looking at a 12- to 15-year project," said Poshard. "I am pleased J&W Allen earned this contract."

The Allen firm, a small, minority business, is co-owned by Walter Allen and his brother, Jerry Allen. Their father, James Bowman Allen, is employed with the firm as shop superintendent.

The dam project, the largest public works program in the history of Southern Illinois, will replace Dams 52 and 53 on the Ohio River. The project started as an $800 million project when the bill was introduced in 1980 by then Illinois congressman Kenneth Gray and U.S. Rep. Carroll Hubbard Jr., D-Ky. Due to allowances for inflation since the authorization of the project, the proposed figure has grown to exceed the billion-dollar mark.

Olmsted, A community of 350, and several other Southern Illinois communities are expected to share in an economic boom during the construction of the dam, which will extend from just above the Olmsted boat ramp to the Kentucky shore.

Some of the immediate benefits in Olmsted could be a new restaurant, grocery store, lumber yard and a paved link directly from Olmsted to Interstate 57, which is about four miles away. Future benefits could be tourism boosts, such as a new boat ramp and docking facility and a historic site.

"Hundreds of construction workers will be employed during construction," said Poshard. "The project will create numerous opportunities for businesses and individuals in the area."

The dams that will be replaced are 70 years old. The normal life of a lock and dam is about 50 years, according to Col. David E. Peixotto, district commander of the Corps at Louisville. He said the affected area of the Ohio River sees more than 10,000 tows a year handling more than 83 million tons of goods valued at $9.2 billion annually.

That section of the Ohio is the busiest stretch because of "downbound and upbound" traffic from the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, according to Peixotto. The traffic is projected to double by the completion date of the project, according to Peixotto.