11 Dec 2020

Hurley docked after another successful dredging season

After almost eight months of dredging the Mississippi River, the Dredge Hurley and crew are now home where the Hurley is docked at Ensley Engineer Yard for some much-needed repairs and maintenance.

26 Nov 2020

Giving back where it matters most

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the percentage of Americans without work skyrocketed from a little over 4 percent to a full-blown 14 percent between March and April this year. While that number has dwindled down in percentage points from month to month, it's still nowhere near where we were before our country was hit with COVID-19 and consequently suffered a significant collapse in the job market. This is part of what motivated U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Memphis District's Brian Schneider. Schneider is the district's Outreach Coordinator and has been with the Memphis District for just over a year. As his title suggests, he's passionate about reaching out, and that's just what he did when this opportunity presented itself.

16 Jul 2020

Bank Grading Unit paves way for commerce, safety

Memphis District Commander Col. Zachary Miller recently visited Island 68, a project site in Arkansas, where he met with the district’s hardworking Bank Grading Unit and reviewed progress made at the site thus far. According to Project Manager and River/Civil Engineer Cole Stonebrook, we have done work here before as this area is particularly erosive and scours easily in moving water. “The soils in the area are very unstable and highly erosive,” he said. “We are addressing a large bank failure by grading irregularities in the bank alignment to a smooth straight alignment. The Grading Unit is grading the banks to a one on four slope,  which requires moving 220,000 cubic yards of material.”

29 Jun 2020

Slide repairs contracted in four states

The Memphis District's Caruthersville Area Office team successfully held a virtual preconstruction conference to discuss contracts awarded for future levee slide repairs in Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Tennessee.  “The contracts furnish all plant, labor, equipment, and any incidental-related work according to the plans and specifications for repairing 18 slides under Work Area Three and 14 slides under Work Area Four for a total of 32 slides,” Lead Civil Engineer Jack Ratliff said.

19 Jun 2020

Memphis District Commander tours several project sites

Memphis District Commander Col. Zachary Miller had a busy day June 17 kicking off a summer full of visiting several of the district's project sites in our area of responsibility. Encompassing almost 25,000 square miles, the Memphis District is responsible for federal civil works projects in portions of six states - Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee.

15 Jun 2020

Memphis Revetment Season in full swing

The Memphis District Revetment season officially began this year on June 11, with District Commander Col. Zachary Miller hosting a kickoff meeting at the Ensley Engineer Yard to get things started. “Protecting the Mississippi River banks keeps the channel in place, which maintains the necessary depth and alignment that allows the thousands of tows to travel up and down the river year round,” the commander said. “Without this work, the river would shift resulting in new, shallow cutoffs that could not be safely traveled.”

15 May 2020

Metal Shop makings...

Navigation is one of our oldest missions. We’re mandated by Congress to keep the Mississippi River open for commercial navigation by maintaining a 9-foot-deep and 300-foot-wide channel, and we do that by dredging on an annual basis. So, as one might imagine, our dustpan dredge, the Hurley, gets used quite a bit keeping the Mississippi open, so our talented team at Ensley Engineer Yard have their work cut out for them keeping her running year after year. This brings us to the project Machinist Brandon Almeida is working on – it’s something the Dredge Hurley uses called “propeller rope guards.” He’s also making the mount needed to make the rope guards on – talk about complex work.