Posted on January 8, 2025
Several small boat harbors along the Mississippi River are set to undergo essential maintenance dredging, thanks to some newly appropriated federal funding.
This comes after a prolonged period of stagnation, with federal support for small harbour dredging absent since 2010. Prior to the lapse in funding, these harbours were being dredged every two to five years.
The US Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) Rock Island District, completed dredging for the Davenport, Iowa Small Boat Harbor in early 2024, and just recently finished up US$1 million in dredging work at Sunset Marina, in Rock Island, Illinois.
Under the River and Harbor Acts of 1946 through 1962, numerous small boat harbours were authorised for construction and maintenance as part of the Mississippi River Nine-foot (2.7-metre) Navigation Project. These harbours were specifically designed to accommodate shallow-draught recreational vessels with depths ranging from five to nine feet (1.5 to 2.7 metres).
Currently, twelve small boat harbours remain fully operational in the USACE Rock Island District.
These dredging projects require precise coordination with local municipalities. Those local entities serve as sponsors for these projects and are responsible for providing space for the placement of dredged material, sometimes a more difficult task than it appears.
Thus far, the Rock Island District has completed dredging the first two harbours and is planning to complete the other five harbours in 2025.
District officials hope that federal funding will remain in place to return these small boat harbours to a predictable cycle of dredging as they were before the 2010 lapse in funding.
