Location

The Poe Lock is the second lock in the four parallel lock complex.  The MacArthur Lock is located to the south and the Davis Lock to the north.

Poe Lock Features

The Poe Lock was completed in 1968 and has a length of 1200 feet between the inner gates, a width of 110 feet, and a depth of 32 feet of water over the sills at normal lower pool. The Poe Lock holds back a head of 21.5 feet (the difference between normal upper pool and normal lower pool).  The reinforced concrete floor and monolithic concrete walls are constructed on a sandstone bedrock foundation. The monolithic walls each contain a service gallery and a filling/emptying culvert. The gates are steel, miter type with direct connect hydraulic cylinder operation. It was constructed at the site of an earlier Poe Lock, completed in 1896, and the old State Lock.  The Poe Lock is the only lock capable of locking 1000-foot vessels. The lock was formally dedicated and placed into service on 26 June 1969.

The Poe Lock is equipped with one upper gate (Gate 1) and two lower sets of miter gates (Gates 2 & 3). The second gate at the downstream end is a spare gate in case the operating gate is damaged. In the original design, a second upstream gate was not included because the downstream dewatering gate is interchangeable with the upstream operating gate.  Two wire rope fenders guard the miter gates. Steel dewatering gates are located downstream of the lower operating gates, and a dewatering bulkhead is located upstream of the upper gates. The dewatering bulkhead uses steel framed stoplogs set in place by a dedicated stiff leg derrick.