Dubuque Barge & Fleeting to Unload Corps Island

Dubuque Barge & Fleeting Services Company of Iowa has been awarded a $7.475 million contract by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers St. Paul District for the Corps Island Dredged Material Unloading project.

Expected to begin in the spring of 2019, mechanical or hydraulic dredges will be used to remove approximately 500,000 cubic yards of dredged material from Corps Island to an upland placement site and/or for beneficial use. Corps Island has been in use as a placement site since 1995. It is located in Pool 3 of the Mississippi River near Diamond Bluff, Wisconsin.

Corps Island has a 500,000 cubic yard capacity, meaning any additional material must be removed to another location. Since the site opened in 1995, there have been 24 placements of material and two major site unloads, one in 1998 and the other in 2011. It is estimated more than 1 million cubic yards of dredged material has moved through the island.

The Corps is working to establish permanent placement sites through long-term dredged material management plans, however plans for Pool 3 have not been completed. This has left a need to remove the material to another location. The removal should be finished by December 2019.