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St. Lucie Lock & Dam

St. Lucie LockThe U.S. Army Corps of Engineers welcomes you to St. Lucie Lock and Dam, located along the St. Lucie Canal, approximately 15.5 miles upstream of the intersection of the St. Lucie River and the Intracoastal Waterway. The Corps constructed and currently manages five locks along the Okeechobee Waterway. St. Lucielock was built in 1941 for navigation and flood control purposes. In 1944, the connecting spillway structure was built for flood and regulatory flow control through the St. Lucie Canal to manage the water level in Lake Okeechobee.

Facts

Lock history: First lock was built at this site by the Everglades Drainage District in 1925.

Cost of construction: Approximately $2 million total

Lift of lock: Sea level to current St. Lucie Canal water level. (14.5' normal)

Lockages: Approximately 10,000 vessels lock through annually; of these about 91% are recreational vessels.

Commodities: Approximately 26,000 tons of manufactured goods, equipment, machinery, crude materials locked annually.

Lock usage: Operating hours 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., 365 days a year, unless otherwise noted in the Coast Guard published, "Notice to Mariners." Lockage usually takes 15 to 20 minutes.

Technical Details

Lock chamber dimensions: 50 feet wide x 250 feet long x 10 feet deep at low water

Lock chamber type: Concrete and steel sheet pile walls

Lock gate type: Steel sector gates (pie-slice shape) installed in concrete gate chambers, operated by rack and pinion drive

Spillway: Concrete, 170 feet wide

Spillway gates: 7 electrically-operated structural steel tainter gates, each 20 feet long 10.5 feet high

Discharge capacity: 11,000 cfs (cubic feet per second)

Hours of Operation

7 a.m. to 5 p.m., with last lockage beginnng at 4:30 p.m.

Contact Information

General information: 863-983-8101
SFOO@usace.army.mil
  • Navigation Locks monitor Marine VHF radio channel 13.
  • Bridges monitor channel 9.

To contact lock: 772-287-2665