Muscatine council approves $331,000 dredging contract; staff outlines repair timeline for city dredge

The Muscatine City Council on March 20 approved a $331,000 purchase order to Superior Seawall Docks and Dredging for a marina dredging project, voting unanimously to move forward with contractor excavation of mud that city equipment cannot reach.

City dredging staff and elected officials described a multi-part approach: contract work to remove mud in problem areas the city dredge cannot access, followed by the city’s reassembled dredge continuing routine maintenance when it is back in service. John Cook, director of the Water and Resource Recovery Facility, told the council the city’s dredge has been under repair since last May and that parts “are in” and “will be installed,” but reassembly and full testing may still take “a few weeks.”

Cook said a recent silt study estimated about 31,000 cubic yards of mud in the harbor but the current contract covers roughly 9,000 cubic yards. He said bidders priced work roughly at “30 and $31 a cubic yard.” He told the council the contractor will excavate mud under fixed docks and in zones city equipment cannot reach, then stop at a mutually agreed level so city crews can “do the rest of it ourselves.”

Council members pressed for timing and public impacts. Councilmember Lewis asked when the city dredge will be repaired; Cook replied that contractors are scheduled to reassemble pumps and a hydraulic system and that the dredge could be reassembled and running within weeks if parts-and-labor scheduling holds. Councilmember Gordon and others asked about staging and disposal; Cook said the contractor will haul most extracted material off-site to Illinois and that dewatered material temporarily placed on city property would be removed once sufficiently dried. He assured the council the city aims to be “out of there before August” to avoid interfering with summer events.

Cook told the council the project will be funded from the biosolids/enterprise fund and not from the general fund. He said the city has commissioned a study, and is negotiating with engineering consultants, to examine longer-term fixes — including changes to the jetty or harbor configuration — intended to reduce the frequency of costly dredging.

The council’s motion to approve the purchase order was moved by Councilmember Gordon and seconded by Councilmember Osborne. The motion carried with all ayes.

Next steps include contractor mobilization, continued repairs to the city dredge, and a staff report on the commissioned harbor hydrology study.