Solving shoaling issues at Cranberry Bend

The USACE’s Kansas City District floating plant headed up the Missouri River Friday morning to work shoaling issues at River Mile 282, also known as Cranberry Bend.

“Our teams have been working, along with contractors, different areas of concern on the river to repair river training structures which help direct the current to self-scour the navigation channel,” said USACE.

One of their primary missions is to provide safe, reliable, efficient and environmentally sustainable waterborne transportation systems for movement of commerce, national security needs and recreation.

The Rivers and Harbors Act of 1945 authorized a 9-foot-deep by 300-foot-wide navigation channel.

To maintain the channel, the Corps constructed the Bank Stabilization and Navigation Project (BSNP) generally from Sioux City to the mouth at St. Louis, a distance of 735 miles.

A sinuous course of reverse bends and river width and depth was managed by constructing rock or piling structures called dikes and revetments.

Dikes were constructed perpendicular to the flow and revetments were constructed parallel to the flow.

The system of structures manages the movement of sediment to minimize channel shoaling providing a consistent and reliable navigation channel.