Chicago Lock Control House
Project of the Year: Industrial/Infrastructure
The Chicago lock is the gateway from the Great Lakes to the inland navigation system and allows for safe passage of boats navigating the 2- to 5-ft water level difference between Lake Michigan and the Chicago River.
The Chicago lock is one of the most heavily used in the United States, annually transporting more than 50,000 commercial and recreational boats, 900,000 passengers and 200,000 tons of freight.
The existing lock is more than 70 years old, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers undertook the rehabilitation. The control house is the first phase of a three-year rehabilitation.
Due to the high usage of the lock, maximum visibility for boater safety was paramount. This required elevating the control room about 40 ft. above the lock wall.
The control room allows an operator to maintain unobstructed views of the lock chamber, thereby improving boating safety. The building includes updated electrical controls.
Aesthetics played a role in the project in part because of the high-profile location opposite Navy Pier.
As a result, the facility features a nautical theme. The exterior is clad in zinc, and the curved and tilted exterior shape resembles a boat.
A green roof was proposed for the flat roof sections and will be installed later for environmental benefits.
Structural Ingenuity
A key design issue was developing a means to support the new building without imparting loads on the old lock wall structure.
The problem was solved by driving micropiles to bedrock through the interior of the existing cellular sheet pile. The micropiles support grade beams that carry the building load without affecting the structural integrity of the existing wall.
The micropiles were installed at a batter to minimize the lateral pressure imparted from the building to the fill within the existing lock wall. The lock house is supported by a group of 28 battered micropiles drilled and anchored into rock. Micropile design criteria include a design vertical load of 100 tons and a design lateral load of 5 tons.
Because the project is on an existing lock wall in Lake Michigan, construction equipment and materials arrived by barge.
Jury Comments: “We like the ship motif. It’s nice to give style to a project that is ultimately utilitarian. It’s interesting that the Corps of Engineers wanted that. Some of the design work was very tricky.”
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