Rock Island News

Maintaining a nine-foot channel on the Mississippi River is part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Rock Island District’s critical navigation mission, especially during low-water conditions. Although early spring snowmelt caused flooding throughout the upper Midwest this past year, water levels receded quickly, causing large amounts of material to settle in the channel.To aid in channel maintenance, geological surveyors regularly monitor water levels throughout the District.

Washington Island Ferry Line (WIFL) has been the essential link between the residents, business and visitors of Washington Island and Wisconsin's Door Peninsula for more than eight decades.Picturesque and peaceful Door County isn't named for some intrepid settlers named Door. The name has a more ominous meaning. It's derived from the treacherous passage between the peninsula and Washington Island that mariners called Porte des Mortes, or Death's Door.A unique combination of environmental…

“Not only does the top of the river move, but the bottom of the river also moves.” - James Bodron, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mississippi Valley Division, Regional Business Director.Dredging was the Herculean act that allowed much of the U.S. economy to keep chugging along as usual, at least for Midwest and Central states, as drought conditions threatened to shut down river traffic on the Mississippi River and its tributaries, during fall and winter 2022 and early 2023.The full scope of these U.S.

I. MoneyNo one ever said it’s easy to understand federal budgets and spending plans. Nevertheless, a general sense of clarity and straightforwardness is critical for any review of public expenditures. This becomes more pressing when tracking revenue and expenditures linked to specific users’ fees, such as the $0.29/gallon fuel tax, paid by inland waterways operators. In 2021, the Inland Waterways Trust Fund (IWTF) held $221.5 million, money earmarked to build, maintain and operate…

The integrity of the marine transportation system as a key plank in a country's economic prosperity is in heightened focus today, with logistics snarls contributing to fast rising inflation. Maintaining the integrity of the vast U.S. inland waterway system - with more than 12,000 miles of inland and intracoastal waterways including 218 lock chambers at 176 sites - is the focus of the Maritime Risk Symposium 2022, a 2.5-day conference scheduled for November 15-17, hostd by Argonne National Laboraty's TCS Conference Center.On Wednesday, November 16, 2022, James P.

Inland waterways, sometimes called ‘nature’s superhighways’ provide a strategic advantage related to security, economics, and trade for any nation whose geography, topography, and climate enable this natural infrastructure. Economic benefits are realized in small rural areas through large urban communities that utilize the system for efficient transportation and improved markets. However, deliberate operational, resource, and policy efforts, along with broad stakeholder integration, are required to maintain and operate such a system.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Rock Island District held a christening ceremony in Quincy, Ill., on Friday for the latest towing vessel to joins its fleet.The vessel, which has been renamed Quincy, was built in 2008 by Texas shipyard Orange Shipbuilding for $5 million and is being relocated from the Corps' Louisville District.Originally named the Gordon M. Stevens, the vessel was designed and contracted by the USACE's Marine Design Center and served as part of the construction…

Waterways Council, Inc. (WCI) is the national public policy organization that advocates for a modern, efficient inland waterways system. Abiding by our mission has meant success over our 17-year history. In 2020, WCI’s top priority is to conform the cost-share for Inland Waterways Trust Fund (IWTF)-financed construction projects to require 25% of the project cost be derived from the IWTF and the remaining 75% from General Revenues. The policy vehicle for this adjustment is the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA)…

A set of complicated lock-and-dam projects on the Illinois Waterway, from Chicago to the Mississippi, has yellow lights flashing throughout the Midwest freight industry. In effect, the entire Waterway will be shut down next summer as the Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island Division, starts some hefty replacement and maintenance projects, from LaGrange to Brandon Road locks and dams.Officials advise maritime, freight and agricultural businesses to look ahead now, to prepare a logistics scenario that will be ready by July 1, 2020.

Lock Closures Starting on the Illinois Waterway This Summer May Result in  More Freight Flowing Through St. Louis Region.Businesses that move or handle commodities on the Illinois Waterway system are being encouraged to start making alternative plans due the scheduled closure of locks on that inland waterway system. With a two-week closure planned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers beginning as early as August 2019 and closures of 90 to 120 days expected in the summers of 2020 and 2023…

In January 2017 the U.S. Coast Guard will commence ice breaking operations in the bay of Green Bay to ensure the safe navigation and overall safe transport of economically-significant commercial shipments. In support of the Port of Green Bay, the Coast Guard will establish and maintain tracks through the ice from Rock Island Passage to the Fox River. The tracks through the ice will extend to Escanaba, Marinette-Menominee, Sturgeon Bay and Green Bay. “Coast Guard waterway managers balance the needs of commercial operators moving the cargoes that fuel industry with those of recreational users enjoying the pristine natural beauty of our Great Lakes,” said Capt. Amy Cocanour, commander of Coast Guard Sector Lake Michigan.

Conrad Shipyard won a contract to build a Crane Barge for the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The 300 x 68-ft welded steel barge is to be used in floating crane service by the Corps’ Rock Island District in support of its maintenance mission on the inland navigation system. The barge is designed with a deckhouse and crew support area, generator room, shop area, office and heads. Below deck will enclose machinery spaces, storage areas and tankage. The vessel will be classified by ABS as Maltese Cross A1…

Insights: Edward E. Belk -  Chief, Operations and Regulatory Division Directorate of Civil Works, U.S. Edward E. Belk, Jr. currently serves as the Chief of Operations and Regulatory Division for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Corps Headquarters in Washington, D.C. He also provides leadership and oversight for activities and programs within the Corps’ Lakes and Rivers and North Atlantic Regional Integration Teams. Selected by the Secretary of the Army into the Senior Executive Service in May 2012, Mr. Belk provides national oversight of the development, resourcing and delivery of Operations and Maintenance (O&M) programs for the Civil Works infrastructure portfolio and for Corps operational programs such as hydroelectric power…

The Great Lakes Towing Company, which operates the largest fleet of shipdocking tugboats on the U.S. Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence Seaway, has announced the addition of four more tugboats to its fleet. The four newly purchased tugs will be named after four of the Great Lakes; Tug Michigan, Tug Huron, Tug Ontario and Tug Erie. The company’s Tug Superior has been in service for years, operating in the Port of Detroit. “These four tugs will be immediately added to the fleet, and provide some new life and operational stability to our day-to-day business,” said Gregg Thauvette, Vice President – Operations, The Great Lakes Towing Company. “The equipment and machinery onboard…

The Coast Guard is asking for the public's help to put a stop to the vandalism of aids to navigation throughout the Pacific Northwest. Several navigational lights in the region have been vandalized rendering them inoperable or limiting their visibility. Recently the batteries were deliberately and illegally removed from a light marking a red and black dayboard on a tower at Reach Range H Rear Light and other aids near Gray’s Harbor. Graffiti applied to the Elk Rock Island Light 13 near Portland, Ore., obscured the green dayboards making them harder to see at a distance and more difficult to read in general. "The loss of this equipment costs taxpayers and the Coast Guard in many ways: first is the obvious financial burden of replacing the damaged or stolen equipment…

Quad Cities Navy Week kicked off May 4 with a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) presentation by USS Constitution and Explosive Ordnance Disposal Training and Evaluation Unit (EODTEU) 1 Sailors at the Putnam Museum in Davenport, Iowa, and United Township High School in East Moline, Illinois. Other events that took place May 4 included Sailors from the guided-missile destroyer USS The Sullivans (DDG 68) -- Iowa's namesake ship, named to honor five brothers from Waterloo, Iowa, who served together aboard USS Juneu during World War II and lost their lives during the Battle of Guadalcanal -- volunteering with Living Lands and Waters in Hampton, Illinois, and U.S. Navy Band Great Lakes performing at the River Music Experience in Davenport.

Technology Associates, Inc. (TAI) of New Orleans, La., announced that it has been notified by the U.S. Army Contracting Command – Rock Island (ACC-RI) that it has been evaluated as the successful offerer for a contract to design and supply a 75 ft high speed fireboat to the U.S. Army. The fireboat will provide maritime firefighting protection and support at the Military Ocean Terminal Concord (MOTCO) in Concord, California. The U.S. Army will receive this Fast Response Fire Fighting Vessel in support U.S.

Great Lakes Shipyard in Cleveland has been awarded a new construction contract by the United States Army Corps of Engineers for two 38-foot work barges, the company announced today. The two new steel work barges will be used by USACE Rock Island District as a working platform to perform maintenance and inspections of lock and dam 11 and  14 on the Upper Mississippi River. The barges will be 38-foot long by 14-foot wide and 3-foot deep. The stern of the vessel will include a transom for mounting an outboard motor to power the vessel.

Rising flood waters were expected to make 11 locks and dams impassable on the mid- and upper-Mississippi River and force the closure of the river later on Monday from Bellevue, Iowa, to Saverton, Missouri, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said. The closure would be the most extensive since 2008 on that stretch of the country's busiest waterway, said Ron Fournier, public affairs officer for the Army Corps' Rock Island district. At least 80 barge tows are expected to be affected by the closure. The Mississippi River is the main shipping route to the U.S. Gulf Coast, where about 60 percent of all U.S. corn, soybeans and wheat exports exit the country. Near-record rains caused extensive flooding last week in parts of Minnesota, Iowa and the Dakotas.

With a record U.S. harvest just coming in, the river transportation system that is at the heart of the nation's farm economy is overstrained by rising demand for shipping capacity, a low barge inventory, and a dilapidated lock system. The pressure is building on an inland waterways network that is just one flood, drought or mechanical breakdown from calamity after decades of neglect, industry sources say. Looming bumper corn and soybean crops are bringing to light issues that have built for years and which have been exacerbated by new entrants to the marketplace for river logistics, such as producers of crude oil from the nation's shale boom. Rail congestion and truck shortages are shifting more cargo to the creaking infrastructure for floating heartland goods to market.

With a record U.S. harvest just coming in, the river transportation system that is at the heart of the nation's farm economy is overstrained by rising demand for shipping capacity, a low barge inventory, and a dilapidated lock system. The pressure is building on an inland waterways network that is just one flood, drought or mechanical breakdown from calamity after decades of neglect, industry sources say. Looming bumper corn and soybean crops are bringing to light issues that have built for years and which have been exacerbated by new entrants to the marketplace for river logistics, such as producers of crude oil from the nation's shale boom. Rail congestion and truck shortages are shifting more cargo to the creaking infrastructure for floating heartland goods to market.

The Coast Guard Foundation, a nonprofit organization committed to the education and welfare of all Coast Guard members and their families, announced today that its 21st Annual Tribute to the United States Coast Guard Eighth District will take place on Friday, March 14, 2014 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Admiral Robert J. Papp, commandant, U.S. Coast Guard and his wife, Linda Papp, will speak at the event. The Coast Guard Foundation’s New Orleans awards dinner is a celebration of the men and women serving in the U.S. Coast Guard's 8th District, which includes the Gulf Coast and the inland waterways of the country. This year, the Foundation will pay special tribute to seven Coast Guard spouses and the roles they play in keeping their Coast Guard families and communities strong…

Transportation plays a crucial role in the soybean supply chain. With access to multiple transportation modes, Illinois soybean farmers enjoy significant advantages for reaching domestic and global markets. But aging transportation infrastructure can increase costs for Illinois farmers. Working with business, government and industry leaders, the Illinois Soybean Association (ISA) is addressing current infrastructure challenges and finding solutions to ensure Illinois soybean farmers have access to the resources they need to get crops to market.