KEARNEY, Neb. (AP) — Repairs will begin soon on the hard-to-move gates at the Harlan County Dam in south-central Nebraska.

The initial $12.3 million project will deal with corrosion on six of the dam’s gates, and the rest of the gates will be repaired over the following two years.

Ken Stark, the project manager and an engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Kansas City, told the Kearney Hub (http://bit.ly/1FVOISO) the whole project is expected to cost $25.7 million.

The corrosion built up over more than 50 years of use. And the dam’s gates are also hard to move because of friction problems with the bearings, so the repairs are a high priority.

Stark says the repair crew is getting set up now and assessing the gates.