The summer's-long partial closure of the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks in Ballard is over.

Maritime traffic began moving through the small lock last week, said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the project.

The problem involved the pintle bearings that support the four gates of the small lock. The lock operators noticed they seemed to be deteriorating at an increasing rate. To reduce wear on the bearings, the Corps reduced use of the small lock, a strategy intended to reduce the likelihood of complete failure of the gates and long-term blockage of the locks.

"The soonest we could have new pintle bearings fabricated and on site was October and the potential for further more serious damage to the gates would have been increased if had we continued to average our norm of 240 lockings per week," said Marian Valentine, the lock's project manager.

The locks were still operated "on demand," 24-hours a day, seven days a week. Most trips through the locks experienced little, or no, impact.