Posted on July 12, 2016
Crews have been busy cleaning up the Muscatine riverfront as the eastern Iowa city prepares for thousands of people to visit during a popular annual bicycle ride across the state.
Workers have been dredging the Mississippi River where riders in the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa will end their 421-mile, seven-day ride, the Muscatine Journal reported.
Jon Koch, director of the Water Pollution Control Plant for the City of Muscatine, said that without the dredging, visitors coming to ceremoniously dip their bike tires in the river would find only large amounts of wet sediment.
“The river level historically could be down to the point where you wouldn’t see anything but mud for some 50 feet,” Koch said. “It would really make our riverfront look bad.”
The collection of sediment was caused by the water slowing as it passes the wall that juts out from the Muscatine shoreline, he said.
Permission for the work was obtained from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the city of Muscatine.
Once the sediment is removed, it’s taken to a site where it is placed in porous bags that allow water to seep out. Once they’re dried, the bags are cut open and the dirt used mainly for construction projects, Koch said.
The fire department will hose off the riverfront infrastructure before bicyclists arrive on July 30.
“We want it to look nice for all the guests,” Koch said.
Source: The Des Moines Register
