The Great Lakes’ last engineered chokepoint against invasive carp is finally under construction. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers confirmed in May 2026 that Increment I of the $1.15 billion Brandon Road Interbasin Project is underway at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam in Joliet, Illinois, the pinch point where the Des Plaines River connects the Mississippi basin to Lake Michigan.
Project Scope
The design layers four deterrent technologies into the lock approach channel: an acoustic fish deterrent, an electric barrier, a bubble curtain, and a flushing lock. All of it has to be retrofitted into a lock and dam built in the 1930s that stays open to commercial barge traffic throughout construction, which is the hard part of the job.
J.F. Brennan Company of La Crosse, Wisconsin won a $113.8 million contract in April 2026 for the in-river work in the channel approach. A Black and Veatch / Stantec joint venture took an $85 million award on April 23, 2026 for Increment III design and engineering across an eight-year ordering period. The project was administratively paused in early 2026 and restarted in March after renewed federal support; program management then moved from the Rock Island District to the Detroit District. Illinois and Michigan are the non-federal sponsors.
Why It Matters
There is a $7 billion Great Lakes fishery on the other side of this structure, and the argument for spending $1.15 billion on a fish barrier rests entirely on that number. Bighead and silver carp have worked their way up the Illinois River for two decades; Brandon Road is the last place to stop them before Lake Michigan.
For the heavy-civil market it is something rarer: a large marine construction package on an inland waterway, executed around an active navigation lock. That combination of cofferdam work, in-water placement, and no-shutdown scheduling is a narrow specialty, which is why a regional marine contractor rather than a national GC holds the first in-river contract. The eight-year design ordering period also signals the Corps expects this to run well into the 2030s, with follow-on increments not yet awarded.
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Project Team & Details
| Owner / Client | U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Detroit District) |
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| Consultants | Black & Veatch / Stantec Joint Venture (Design and Engineering, Increment III) |
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| General Contractor | J.F. Brennan Company, Inc. (Increment I, in-river construction) |
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| Status | Under Construction |
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| Delivery Method | Design-Bid-Build |
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| Funding Source | Mixed |
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