News

More funding this year for lower MO River repairs

The US Army Corps of Engineers says it has a lot more money to fix emerging navigation problems in the lower Missouri River this year.

As flood waters receded last year, Colonel William Hannan with the Kansas  City district, tells Brownfield five-thousand structures emerged badly damaged, “As we had those shallow spots, towboat operators and barges had to break apart to get through some of those areas with our escorts. The agriculture community had to align different shipping methods so, you know, it was very impactful.”

He says the drier weather has made it harder, in some cases, to reach the damaged areas to repair them and they will likely bring in other Corps of Engineers’ crews from Omaha, Nebraska and maybe Little Rock, Arkansas.

Hannan says the Corps has 74-Million dollars to work on the lower 730 miles of the navigable channel which puts them in a much better position this season than last year.

As for levee repairs, he says they will have all of them repaired by May except for two, in northwest Missouri’s Holt and Platte Counties, but those are slated for repair in September.

Hannan says the key partnerships the Kansas City District has built with its partners is enabling their success.

~Brownfield’s Will Robinson contributed to this report~