The phrase "a navigation lock" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when referring to a structure that allows boats or ships to pass through a waterway by raising or lowering their water level.
Example: "The river was too shallow for large vessels, so we had to use a navigation lock to continue our journey."
Alternatives: "boat lock" or "canal lock".
On canalized rivers and artificial canals, the waterway consists of a series of level steps formed by impounding barriers through which vessels pass by a navigation lock.
Three hundred miles up the Mississippi River from its mouth — many parishes above New Orleans and well north of Baton Rouge — a navigation lock in the Mississippi's right bank allows ships to drop out of the river.
By John McPhee The Low Sill at Old River Three hundred miles up the Mississippi River from its mouth — many parishes above New Orleans and well north of Baton Rouge — a navigation lock in the Mississippi's right bank allows ships to drop out of the river.
A navigation lock bypasses the sluice.
At the end of the 7.5 mile cut, there would be a huge sluice and a navigation lock.
Some years ago, the Corps made a film that showed the navigation lock and a complex of associated structures built in an effort to prevent the capture of the Mississippi.
A new Black Sluice, including a 20 feet wide navigation lock, was constructed to the south of the original one, with the cill level 6 feet lower, which enabled the gradient of the South Forty-Foot Drain to be increased to 3 inches per mile (5 cm/km).
The project included a hydroelectric station, a fish elevator, two navigation locks, an irrigation canal, a 1,580-foot 1,580-footam, and an eight-mile earthen dam.
When Rabalais was a child, there was no navigation lock to lower ships from the Mississippi.
The navigation lock is not a formal place.
A boat comes down the river, takes a right, and heads for Old River Control, thinking that it is Old River Navigation Lock.
