USACE, City of Wabasha continue river sand management partnership

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, and the city of Wabasha, Minnesota, are working together to manage river sand dredged from the Mississippi River.

The trucking operations began this week and should be complete in December, said USACE.

“The city anticipates moving around 2,000 cubic yards of sand a day, Monday – Friday, during daylight hours via U.S. Highway 61 and city streets. A similar trucking operation occurred earlier this year and supported the movement of around 130,000 cubic yards of sand,” according to an official statement.

The city said they plan to use Kohner Materials, from Wabasha, to move sand from the Wabasha Gravel Pit, a Corps of Engineers placement site near Wabasha, to a gravel pit about a mile away and on the west side of the highway.

Also, the city is doing this work under an agreement with the Corps of Engineers to manage the sand within the community.

The agreement is known as a Section 217(d) agreement, under the Water Resources Development Act of 1996, and signed by Wabasha Mayor Emily Durand and Col. Eric Swenson, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, commander, in July 2023. The partnership supports river sand management within the Wabasha community.