The Holt Lock and Dam is part of the Black Warrior River

Black Warrior River

The Black Warrior River is a waterway in west central Alabama in the southeastern United States. The river rises in the extreme southern edges of the Appalachian Highlands and flows 178 miles to the Tombigbee River, of which the Black Warrior is the primary tributary...

 near Holt

Holt, Alabama

Holt is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 4,103. It is part of the Tuscaloosa, Alabama Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...

, Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

 in Tuscaloosa County

Tuscaloosa County, Alabama

Tuscaloosa County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama.It is named in honor of the pre-Choctaw chief Tuskaloosa. In 2010, the population was 194,656...

. Opening for navigation in 1966, it served as a replacement for a series locks and dams built in the early 1900s. The lock and dam impounds Holt Lake 19 miles (30.6 km) upstream to the John Hollis Bankhead Lock and Dam.

The lock is located in the southern bank and has an inside chamber with dimensions of 110 feet (33.5 m) by 600 feet (182.9 m), and having a maximum lift of 64 feet (19.5 m). The spillway

Spillway

A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of flows from a dam or levee into a downstream area, typically being the river that was dammed. In the UK they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways release floods so that the water does not overtop and damage or even destroy...

 is controlled by 14 individually-operated tainter gate

Tainter gate

The Tainter gate is a type of radial arm floodgate used in dams and canal locks to control water flow. It is named for Wisconsin structural engineer Jeremiah Burnham Tainter....

s used to control the overall lake level. Located on the northern bank are hydroelectric turbine

Turbine

A turbine is a rotary engine that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work.The simplest turbines have one moving part, a rotor assembly, which is a shaft or drum with blades attached. Moving fluid acts on the blades, or the blades react to the flow, so that they move and...

s operated by the Alabama Power Company

Alabama Power Company

Alabama Power Company, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, is a company in the southern United States that provides electricity service to 1.3 million homes, businesses, and industries in the southern two-thirds of Alabama. It is one of four U.S...

.