The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, has just released a video named ‘Maintaining the Mississippi River navigation channel is vital to the regional economy’.
In the video, Dan DeVaney , St. Paul District channel maintenance coordinator, discusses the importance of maintaining the Mississippi River navigation channel and the river’s economic importance.
Sedimentation in the channel is caused by the normal cycle of silt movement, erosion from high water or heavy rains and changes in river currents.
To maintain the 9-foot navigation channel, material that settles in the channel area must be removed. Mechanical or hydraulic dredging are methods for the removal of that material.
The district is responsible for maintaining 243.6 miles of navigation channel to a depth of at least 9 feet on the Mississippi River from Minneapolis at river mile 857.6 to Guttenberg, Iowa, at river mile 614.0, and 40.6 miles on three tributaries: the Minnesota, St. Croix and Black rivers.