One of the state's oldest dams now features an
unusual site sure to draw spectators and photographers
alike: an aboveground generating turbine.
e massive motor at Bankhead Lock and Dam on
the Black Warrior River was lied out in April and is
on display on the road leading to the facility. And it's
not going anywhere.
"It was cheaper to put it off to the side and let it
sit there than pay someone to haul it off," said John
Kirkland, Alabama Power's Warrior River Hydro
manager. "It's pretty cool. I've seen a lot of people on
bikes riding by taking pictures."
A new turbine manufactured in York, Pennsylvania, is
scheduled to arrive in February. But there's more going
on at Bankhead than just a new turbine. An extensive
$17 million makeover will include a new control room,
headgates, stop-logs, wicket gates (which let water flow
into the turbine) and other improvements.
"It's pretty much going to be a new operating unit,"
Kirkland said.
Bankhead Lock and Dam, known by locals as
simply "Lock 17," straddles the Warrior River between
Birmingham and Tuscaloosa. Built by the Army Corps
of Engineers in 1915, it went into service a year aer
Alabama Power's first hydro facility, Lay Dam.
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