Costs overflow for Kentucky dam -- By Zack Colman, The Washington Examiner

Budget hawks are screeching about a measure tucked into the government funding deal that raises the spending cap for a dam in Kentucky to $2.9 billion, calling the project an example of federal profligacy and mismanagement.

The Olmsted Locks and Dam is 24 years behind schedule and its cost has tripled since Congress authorized it in 1988. That's mainly because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers tried a largely untested method when constructing the dam — building it underwater.

The project has broad support on both sides of the aisle, despite its financial maladies. Some conservative groups slammed the authorization in the budget deal as a “Kentucky kickback” for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. But it was Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., not McConnell, who inserted the language.

Olmsted, in the Ohio River on the Illinois-Kentucky border, is the busiest portion of the nation's inland waterway system. Its advocates say the benefits of the dam and replacing two accompanying locks are enormous.

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