News Story Manager

District Commander on the road (Part I)

#MemphisDistrictMovingDirt

Published Sept. 12, 2019
Memphis District Commander Col. Zachary Miller gets a firsthand look at how we use cutterhead dredges to keep river harbors open for business.

Memphis District Commander Col. Zachary Miller gets a firsthand look at how we use cutterhead dredges to keep river harbors open for business.

Memphis District Commander on the road

IN THE PHOTO: Left to right aboard the contract Dredge Integrity are Ben Baddour, Memphis District Dredging Inspector; Boyd Heaton and Dwight Smalls from contractor Inland Dredging Company; Col. Zachary Miller, and Memphis District Chief of Construction Jim Wolff.

Memphis District Commander Col. Zachary Miller recently spent the better part of a week traveling through the district to view work in progress and meet with our many partners and stakeholders. We’ll follow along in this series of brief articles and photos.

Col. Miller visited the contract cutterhead Dredge Integrity working at Elvis Stahr Harbor near Hickman, Kentucky. This is one of the ten Mississippi River harbors located in the Memphis District. Following a brief introductory overview of the project, Col. Miller watched the dredge operator as he manipulated the cutterhead to remove silt and other material to ensure the harbor can remain open.

The dredge worked around the clock at Elvis Stahr Harbor for 17 days and removed 168,578 cubic yards of material from the harbor. That’s equivalent to more than 51 Olympic swimming pools.

Thanks to funding in the President’s budget and Work Plan, the Memphis District will dredge all ten harbors within its area of responsibility. Next stop for the dredge was Northwest Tennessee Regional Harbor near Tiptonville, Tennessee.