This has been a dry year after we have had a few wet years. In fact, 2019 was very wet. A lot of dredging is needed this year. Not only is the channel a lot shallower due to the relative lack of rain, the wet years pushed sand back into the channel.
The current is so strong (8- to 10-mph) that they don't need any pipes to relocate the dredge material.
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Screenshot
Donald Mayer: Is this at Victoria Bend?
[A comment said yes. Unfortunately, I have no idea where Victoria Bend is.
Another comment indicated this is the Hurley] |
"The dredge Hurley is a 353-feet-long, 108-feet-wide dustpan dredge. Its two 1,500 horsepower motors drive pumps that can remove as much as 5,000 cubic yards of sand and sediment from the river bottom each hour using a vacuum-cleaner type head and deposit it safely outside the navigation channel via a long floating pipeline. It can dredge as deep as 75 feet if conditions require." [
USACE-historic-lows]
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U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Headquarters posted
Memphis District Corps of Engineers recently shared this photo of the first experimental hydraulic dredge, "Dredge Alpha" to be constructed for the immediate relief from low water conditions. Background: In November 1891, representatives of steamboat transportation lines operating below St. Louis appeared before the Mississippi River Commission to plead for immediate relief from low-water. After a thorough investigation, the commission decided that dredging was the only means to provide relief quickly. It authorized construction of an experimental hydraulic dredge, later named the Alpha. This dredge proved its worth in its first test at Cape Girardeau, Missouri. In eight days it cleared an 1,800-foot bar and, where there had been only 3 to 4 feet of water, provided a 6-foot channel. Most encouraging, the channel remained clear the entire season. Pickwick Lock shared |
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MWRD via Dennis DeBruler
A view to the east showing a bucket dredge in operation on the South Branch of the Chicago River near Taylor Street in Chicago, Illinois, on March 22, 1917. |
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MWRD posted
A dredging boat at work on the Little Calumet River on December 1, 1927. |
Cori Wilson
posted two photos with the comment:
The vessel in both pictures is the New York State steam-powered bucket-line dredge
Fort Edward, built in 1907 for the massive
New York State Barge Canal project (1905–1918) — the final, enlarged version of the Erie Canal system that we still use today.
First photo
Taken June 17, 1907, near Fort Ann, New York.
The dredge is still under construction. The big wooden hull is afloat, the lower part of the A-frame is up, and the long bucket ladder is only partly installed. The tall smokestack, superstructure, and most of the machinery are missing. It looks more like a half-built barge than a working dredge.
Second photo
Taken just 36 days later on July 23, 1907, at the same location.
The transformation is stunning: Fort Edward is now fully assembled and digging. The huge continuous bucket line is in place, the tall smokestack is belching smoke, and the traveling gantry derrick with its 5-cubic-yard bucket is hard at work cutting the canal prism and piling spoil to form the berms alongside the channel.
This rapid build-from-scratch-to-operational pace was typical on the Barge Canal. New York State and its contractors, supervised by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, turned out a whole fleet of nearly identical sister dredges — Fort Edward, Fort Ann, Glens Falls, Schuylerville, Whitehall, and others — to excavate the land sections of the canalized Mohawk River and the Champlain Division between Waterford and Whitehall.
In little more than a month, a bare hull became one of the most powerful digging machines on the continent. These two photos perfectly capture the speed, scale, and industrial energy of one of America’s greatest early-20th-century public works projects.
[The Barge Canal was a larger canal that replaced the Erie Canal.]
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Mark Pleas commented on the above post
Gosho (五祥), the world's largest grab dredger, owned by Kojimagumi.
https://www.kk-kojimagumi.co.jp/english/ship/ship_dredging/ship_grab-dredger/entry-254.html
"Grab bucket capacity：200 m3 Dredging depth：-48 m"
The 200m3 bucket has a 370 ton grab, and a 106m3 bucket with a 477 ton grab can be used to remove hard soil.
[I thought this was the largest clamshell bucket I had ever seen.]
The bucket has a counterweight so power is needed only to lift the soil's weight. And it has two spuds so that it can maneuver itself. It also has an automatic flat bed dredging system. All three of these features are patented. [The towers midship and aft control the spuds.] |
Jan Danielsen
posted 25 photos with the comment:
If anyone is interested in what is going on in Pool 13 near Thomson, Illinois mile marker 531.0 ---here are pictures I took while I was on the river today. 8-3-21. (If not interested just scroll on past). The Corp of Engineers is dredging ---a pipe "sucks" it up and then the sand is "blasted" out onto shore. (Probably not the right words to use). 
I think it's about a mile long that the work is being done--or so. I found it interesting. Dale Rud: 5000ft of plastic pipe and 1800 ft of steel pipe on pontoons. We started pumping around noon today [Aug 3, 2021].
Jan Danielsen: Dale Rud Thank you for giving us the correct info. My husband was figuring a mile or so. Interesting. I took the pictures when we were about to go in to the boat dock in Thomson, Illinois.
Joseph Lorge: I work on the lower could someone tell me the name of the two core towboats.
A few days later, M/V Warioto was working a different job.
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Steve J Crile posted
Corp of Engineers boat M/V Warioto heading up-river at Muscatine |
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Brian Krause commented on Steve's post
This pic is from the wheelhouse today.
[I wonder what kind of job that equipment helps perform.] |
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Mark Sherman posted
Another job down . On to the next one . Dredge boat life. |
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Eddie Conder posted
Dredge Potter getting it done at little rock light. |
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USACE, cropped
Dredge Goetz working in Pool 18 on the Mississippi River
"Dredging project to cause temporary river closure near Keithsburg, Illinois"
The closure is anticipated to be for three weeks with two half-hour windows a day for recreational boaters.
[It seems to me the USACE should develop a truss so that they can suspend the pipe more than 9' below the surface under the navigation channel to avoid closing the river.] |
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Angel Binner posted
This week cover photo is credited to Adrian Loewenhagen! Thank you for this amazing picture of the USACE's Dredge Goetz tow!
Dennis DeBruler: Without seeing the base of the tower, I could not determine if this bridge tower was at Burlington, IA, or Quincy, IL. But the attachment of the cables to the deck show that this is the bridge at Burlington.
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Evansville Living
posted three photos with the comment:
It's the site of summer fun, but the sandbar that appears each August in the Ohio River off Downtown Evansville has a practical purpose. Here's a quick guide to "Pump-Out Island."
[They provided a link, but I got a 404.]
Matt Bunner: Environmental law says that's illegal, but because it is government look the other way. Look at the turbidity and TSS and no idea of the disturbances of muscle beds and endangered species...... #hypocricy
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Lucibello Heavy Equipment photography
posted five photos with the comment: "Dipper Dredge No. 3 which was operated by the New York State Canal Authority, which was built by Bucyrus in 1929 and operated until the 1970s. Like many of the marine equipment built at the time, this machine is powered by an oil fired steam boiler. This dredge is a front shovel style dredge and was equipped with a 6 cubic yard bucket, which you can see on the stern of the dredge. Like many modern bucket dredges the No. 3 it is equipped with two self elevating spuds at the bow and a walking spud at the stern which will push the barge forward into the next cut. The No. 3 dredge spent its life maintaining the Erie canal, which allows barge traffic between the Hudson River and the Great Lakes. After being retired, the No. 3 dredge was laid up at the Lyons dry dock facility along with a couple other historic pieces of marine equipment."
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David Gulden
posted three photos with the comment: "DREDGE CAPTAIN WILLIAM CLARK."
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David Gulden posted
DREDGE WILLIAM S MITCHELL |
In addition to keeping navigation channels open, dredging is used for certain types of mining. Here one is used for mining sand from the bottom of Lake Erie.
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Bill Kloss posted
Meet the sandsucker Charles Dick with her "birdcage" apparatus. Built at Collingwood ON by Collingwood Shipbuilding Co., Hull 71 Launched May 27, 1922258’6” LOA, 250’ LBP, 43’ beam, 20’ depth 1 deck, coal-fired boilers, triple expansion engine, 1250 IHPEnrolled at Toronto ON 244.0 x 43.2 x 18.9, 2015 GT, 651 NT Can 141678 to: National Sand & Materials Co., Toronto ON (home port Toronto ON) Entered service 1922. Boilers converted to oil firing late 1940s. Laid up at end of 1973 season and did not operate again. (The Canadian government was concerned about the degree of erosion of the Lake Erie shoreline from removing sand from the lake bottom and in 1976 discontinued the vessel’s license to take sand from the lake). Sold for scrap 1976 to Marine Salvage Ltd., Port Colborne ON and scrapped at Port Colborne. Michael Chase: Used to see the Sandsuckers in the 60's off Point Pelee on a regular basis ...
Carl Burkett: Fond memories of the CHARLES DICK. Thanks Bill Kloss
https://carlzboats.blogspot.com/2012/05/the-sandsucker-charles-dick.html |
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| Bill Kloss commented on his post |
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Bill Kloss commented on his post
Photo from Carl Burkett Carlz Boats |
Bill Kloss
posted two photos with the comment: "The sandsucker
Charles Dick entering the Cuyahoga River in these undated Chuck Drumm photos."
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Becky Haag posted via Dennis DeBruler
Unfortunately, no one was in Two Harbors when I was there, but I thought this was an interesting shot. Does anyone know what they're doing on the gravity chute side? Taconite recovery? Dredging?
[According to comments: the left side is Dock #2 and both sides are used, but primarily the conveyor side on the left. Dock #1 on the right is not used.]
William Boyd: The sheeting along the shoot [chute] side started to fail and a sinkhole developed inside. They could be dredging up the washed out material.
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WallaWallaUSACE
posted three photos with the comment:
Dredging on the Snake River
The Walla Walla District began dredging on January 5. This work is being done to maintain the federal navigation channel at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater rivers near Lewiston, Idaho and downstream of Ice Harbor Dam. Work will conclude by March 1, before the spring fish runs.
The last time these two areas were dredged was from December 2014 to March 2015. The 220,000 cubic yards of sediment is being disposed in-water at a site near Bishop Bar.
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Legendary Machinery posted
[Some comments state that it would be used for dredging while others say it is used for unloading big ships.] |
Lucibello Heavy Equipment photography
posted two photos with the comment: "
Weeks Marine, Inc.’s newest trailing suction hopper dredge the RB Weeks which is a twin to the Magdalen. At 364’-6” this dredge is capable of holding 8550 yards of material."
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Port of Monroe posted
The King Company of Holland, MI has spent the last few weeks conducting dredging operations on the River Raisin. This ensures our channel is navigable for current and future vessel operations, like the loading of synthetic gypsum. The articulated tug/barge Undaunted/Pere Marquette 41 were in port twice in the last week to load syngyp.
Photo Credit: Samuel Hankinson
[Port of Monroe] |
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Mark Bush commented on the above post
Good crews. They keep channels open at Grand Haven, Muskegon, and elsewhere. |
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Mark Bush commented on the above post
Here’s Undaunted/PM 41 at Ferrysburg on the Grand River. |
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Dana VanOordt commented on the above post
I was watching them pack up from my camp site. |
I don't know if these are dredging rivers or coastline ports, but they are worth noting.
Actually, it appears this one is working on the Panama Canal.
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Screenshot @ 0:02
The World’s largest Grabber Dredger with 200 cubic meter bucket. Credit to Teo Chee Hean |
Aug 2023:
USACE, Rock Island District posted four photos with the comment: "This week, Rock Island District dredging crews were working below the lock at
Locks and Dam 15 in Rock Island, Illinois, removing sediment from the navigation channel. Dredging is an integral part of yearly channel maintenance to ensure the navigation industry can continue moving up and down the river. District crews can remove up to five barges of sediment a day and this year plans to dredge 750,000 cubic yards of material.
" Melissa Cook: Where do they put 750,000 cubic yards of sediment?
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island District: Melissa Cook the sediment is placed in areas based on our Dredged Material Management Program (DMMP) which evaluates and identifies preferred dredged material placement sites. You can read more about the program here:
This is the first time I've seen how they unload the barges.
USACE, Headquarters posted four photos with the comment:
Here’s a look at recent Philadelphia District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredging operations in the Delaware River. Dredging allows for safe maritime navigation along the river. Work is taking place between Philadelphia and Trenton.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers North Atlantic Division
Robert Wanner
posted three photos with the comment: "Dredging of a hundred years worth of culm (coal dirt) from the Schuylkill River in the Reading and Berks County, Pa area in 1948-49. Dredge moved down the river sucking up the debris and deposited it at designated landfill sites along the river. Photos by Robert Wanner."
GoReadingBerks: The Schuylkill River cleanup, known as the “Schuylkill River Project,” was a monumental environmental effort conducted between 1947 and 1951. It was the first large-scale river restoration initiative in the U.S., aimed at reversing the decades of industrial pollution that had turned the Schuylkill into the nation's dirtiest river.
The river had been severely polluted by coal silt and industrial waste for over a century, particularly due to discharges from collieries and washeries. In 1945, Pennsylvania, under Governor Martin, embarked on this historic cleanup project, which became a joint state-federal effort with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agreeing to take responsibility for portions of the river once Pennsylvania had removed 50% of the coal silt between Auburn and Norristown.
The official project launch occurred in 1947 with a high-profile ceremony in Reading, PA. The cleanup involved four engineering firms, each responsible for different aspects of the project: dredging, equipment management, and desilting operations. The project utilized dredges to remove millions of tons of coal silt from the river and established desilting pools to trap sediment. The dredged material was pumped into these pools, where it was allowed to settle, and the clear water was drained back into the river.
By the time the project officially ended in 1951, over 20 million cubic yards of coal silt had been removed from the river. The cleanup helped restore the Schuylkill’s ability to function as a viable water source and laid the foundation for future river restoration projects across the country. Despite the challenges and scale of pollution, the Schuylkill River Project was successful in transforming the river, leaving a lasting legacy in environmental restoration. - Source data: book entitled “River Again” by Chari Towne
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USACE Pittsburgh District
posted five photos with the comment:
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District is actively working to ensure safe navigation within the authorized federal channel on the Monongahela River following the removal of the
Elizabeth Dam.
Our contractors are conducting dredging operations from 6 a.m. to midnight each day to ensure the river remains navigable. This effort is focused on maintaining the crucial 9 ft. navigation depth to support commercial traffic.
We are closely monitoring conditions and will continue to take necessary actions to restore full navigation capabilities for all river users.
Zach Frere: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District
You misworded
We made a massive mistake and rendered the river unusable now we are wasting millions of taxpayer dollars to have emergency contractors blindly dredging to try and cover up our mistake.
Ronald Towers: My question is are you also dredging the shore where the marinas are so their docs are not sitting on land anymore.
Chad Kalkowski: I wonder how many endangered fresh water mussels are now being impacted because of mistakes made.
USACE, Pittsburgh
posted four photos with the comment:
Since 2019, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District has removed 95,000 cubic yards of sediment from the Conemaugh River—that’s like hauling away the equivalent of 211 million 12-ounce soda cans.
This essential work is part of restoring the historic Johnstown Local Flood Protection Project, originally built in the 1940s to guard the community against severe flooding.
Clearing out sediment and vegetation keeps the flood control system strong, ensuring Johnstown’s safety for the future.
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USACE, Jacksonville District
posted two photos with the comment:
Dredging operations during the Canaveral Sand Bypass project are temporarily suspended today as the dredge Illinois makes its way into Port Canaveral due to forecasted inclement weather and sea conditions
The good news is that we anticipate resuming dredging and sand placement this Thursday, March 6th, pending weather.
For now, as Mother Nature always gets the final vote during these operations, a section of beach directly south of the Cocoa Beach pier will remain closed, but please stay tuned for updates!
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USACE, New Orleans District posted
The hopper dredge Wheeler works in Southwest Pass of the Mississippi River April 26, 2025, dredging sediment during this year’s flood fight event for the 2025 high-water season. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District, is currently in Phase II of flood fight, which occurs when the river at the Carrollton Gage hits the 15-foot mark and is projected to rise. During prolonged high-water events, the Wheeler can sometimes assist with maintaining navigation along the Mississippi River by dredging material that builds up below Head of Passes near the mouth of the river. The hopper dredge Wheeler is operated by the USACE New Orleans District and is the largest hopper dredge in the USACE fleet. (Photo by Ed Morehouse) |
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0:16 video
Ashley Berrigan: What are the cables from the top of the stick for ? Mike Beers: Ashley Berrigan I got two guesses, safety lines incase they blow a hose so the boom doesn't slam down and flip the barge or something, or extra power because sea muck will be VERY heavy vs regular soil. Rob Pawlowski: Mike Beers it's the latter part of your reply. Aaron has another video of the dredge where he explains just what you said about how the cables help in lifting the boom because of the weight. Sebastion Spray: Mike Beers spot on !!! They are referred to as pendant lines! Depending on the design and style of rig the either assist in lifting/weight transfer or in this case they are more of an assist on heavier loads and also they and use a winch to lift the arm back up out of the water and into position in an emergency situation |
10 photos of a Liebherr 994 backhoe dredge working on the Kill Van Kull
6 photos of a clamshell dredging the Kill Van Kull with the Left Coast Lifter in the background
10 photos of the Norfolk Dredge Virginian using a 30 cu. yd. environmental bucket in the mouth of the Arthur Kill.
7:01 video Starting at
2:33 it replaces a loaded barge with an empty one.
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