The Waterways Council, Inc. says that the Chickamauga Lock on the Tennessee River should be modernized despite an economic study that showed tonnage is down and costs have doubled, a spokeswoman for the council said in an email.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers presented the study to the Inland Waterways Users Board at a recent meeting, but it has not been publicly released.

The lowered tonnage and the doubled costs “jeopardize” the funding in both President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2017 budget and the Army Corps work plan, the spokeswoman said, but the council’s view is that the Chick lock “is a national, priority navigation project and deserves to remain in the pipeline for funding and completion. Given both the money that has been expended on the project, and its necessity to today’s and future shippers, Chickamauga is critically important.”

The Chick and other locks in the Mid South are used to farmers to obtain inputs and to move their products, particularly corn and soybeans.