By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A huge influx of money to make the Missouri River a more
reliable navigation channel has nearly been spent as the Army Corps of
Engineers completes repairs and upgrades.
Missouri River Program Manager, Clint Mason, says the Army Corps
of Engineers Kansas City office had never seen an allocation as large as the $340
million approved by Congress.
“So our annual budget for operations and maintenance on the
river in Kansas City is about $10-11 million,” Mason tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post.
“And so, whenever we get an influx of $340+ million, it was definitely orders
of magnitude above what we will get on a normal year. And even more I think than
what we’ve seen after past floods and other major events when we’ve had damages.”
The Kansas City office of the Corps of Engineers maintains the
Missouri River from Holt County to its mouth in St. Louis.
Mason asserts a lack of maintenance along the Missouri River
led directly to damage in wake of the 2011 and 2019 floods. He says the money
will bring navigational structures back to their original strength.
Mason points out the Corps’ Kansas City office receives its
annual maintenance budget for all the waterways under its management with only
a portion designated for the Missouri River.
“But over time, it became evident that that wasn’t, it wasn’t
enough to keep all the structures to their full criteria,” according to Mason. “The
rock breaks down with freeze, thaw. High, full events will push the rock or
move it off of their structures, things like that. Over time, those rock
structures require continual upkeep and maintenance.”
Upgrades along the Missouri River has made it a more reliable transportation
source, which has led to more barge traffic from Sioux City, Iowa to St. Louis.
Mason says the Corps expects even more barge traffic on the Missouri in the
future.
“Right now, I think we’re seeing a resurgence of navigation
now that we’ve made the repairs over the last two years and I mentioned during
low water even the last couple of years the channel has remained open and
navigable the entire time,” Mason says.
Mason says the Corps has observed more navigation this year.
“I think that we’re seeing more navigation on the river than
we have in the last, certainly, five, 10 years.”
There are 5,000 navigational structures on the lower Missouri
River.
You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.
