KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A barge inspection of the Lower Missouri River Basin was held on Aug. 28, 2024, in Kansas City, Missouri. The annual event was hosted by the Kansas City District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The barge inspection is an opportunity for Missouri River partners and stakeholders to view various Kansas City District Civil Works projects on a segment of the river. Subject matter experts from the district were present to discuss the Missouri River Recovery Program, Operations and Maintenance for Navigation, the Lower Missouri River Basin studies and the Kansas Citys Levees Civil Works project. Guest speakers included the Missouri Department of Transportation and Water One.
“We appreciate all of [USACE’s] communication through winter operations with ice jams all the way through summer operations,” said Michelle Wirth with Water One. “We appreciate our partnership with [USACE] to supply water to our residents.”
The tour started at Platte Landing Park in Parkville, Missouri, and continued downstream through downtown Kansas City, Missouri, and ended at the Kansas City Riverfront, covering several downtown river miles. Those in attendance had the opportunity to see multiple levee units, multiple river structure repairs and obstruction removal, the demolished Buck O’Neil Bridge and portions of the Kansas Citys Levees Civil Works project.
The barge inspection tour also gave the Kansas City District an opportunity to show the progress made to repairing the navigation channel after the 2019 flood, reiterate its commitment to communicating and collaborating with navigation partners to improve navigation conditions and illustrate how it is addressing some of the Lower Missouri River Basin’s most important issues through various studies and programs.
“We remain committed to repairing the navigation channel … allowing it to be more resilient in the future,” said Clint Mason, technical support branch chief, Kansas City District. “Communication with our partners is critical for long-term repair and short-term repair. We’ve had great success with coordination with our partners over the last few years.”
The barge inspection was also a chance for the Kansas City District to reemphasize its commitment to improving the Missouri River by communicating the need for future work on the river to ensure the reliability and success of the Bank Stabilization and Navigation Project.
In attendance on the inspection barge tour were representatives from the navigation industry and agricultural sector, members of the Missouri River Recovery Implementation Committee, environmental proponents and other federal, state and local government partners.
For more information about the barge inspection, contact the Kansas City District Public Affairs Office at 816-389-3486 or CENWK-PA@usace.army.mil.