Corps seeks public input on mooring sites

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is seeking public input on some potential mooring facilities on the Upper Mississippi River, including a site near Guttenberg.

Mooring facilities are structures in the river that vessels can use to temporarily anchor. There are two types: 

Mooring cell: A circular sheet pile structure usually filled with earth and/or concrete.

Dolphin: A smaller mooring structure made of multiple steel pilings.

The Corps has completed a feasibility study that identified sites that would save time per lockage, improve safety and reduce shoreland erosion caused by barge towboats waiting on the shoreline.

Lock and Dam 10 at Guttenberg was one of seven locks  and dams that would benefit from mooring facilities to reduce commercial traffic delays, according to the study. 

The approximate location of the local proposed mooring facility is in pool 10, river mile 615.5, located .38 of a mile upstream from the Lock 10 chamber.

The Corps is seeking public input on the locations, construction and future barge use of the proposed mooring facilities, specifically information on existing resources or other environmental, historical and cultural concerns.  The public input will be used to guide decision making.

The comment period is currently open and runs through April 5. 

Comments can be submitted via an online comment form, through email at: CEMVR_Planning@usace.army.mil, or by writing to the address below.

Department of the Army

US Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island District

Attn: Hoffmann (PD-C)

Clock Tower Building

P. O. Box 2004

Rock Island IL 61204-2004