The US Army Corps of Engineers’ 94-year-old dustpan dredge Potter resumed channel maintenance near St. Louis in late August after completing routine dry-dock repairs.
The St. Louis District vessel is working on the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, where it helps maintain a nine-foot navigation channel for commercial traffic. Its 52 employees are divided among three watches, allowing dredging to continue 24 hours a day, seven days a week during the season.
During the dry-dock work, crews repaired the hull, rudder, shafts, wheels and dustpan ladder. Before the vessel returned to the water, its propulsion gearbox and skin coolers also underwent overhauls.
Measuring 240 feet long and 46 feet wide, Potter removes sand deposited by river currents in shallow sections of the navigation channel. The material is transferred through a pipeline and discharged elsewhere in the river, either outside the channel or at selected placement sites.
During the 2025 season, the dredge removed around 4.7 million cubic yards of river sand from 36 locations along the Mississippi and Illinois rivers.
Its 2026 season began later than usual because of the maintenance period, but initial channel surveys indicated that less dredging may be needed than in previous years.
“Initial surveys show the navigation channel is in better condition than we see in most years, so even with a later-than-normal start, I expect the Potter to keep pace with dredging demands,” St. Louis District dredging project manager Lance Engle said.
For routine channel maintenance, the district plans to use its traditional pipeline for side-casting. Crews will deploy flex pipe on some assignments to direct sand to specified locations and form ephemeral habitats on temporary islands.
The St. Louis District uses Potter as part of its channel-maintenance program across the two rivers. During operations, the crew lives and works aboard, and the district publishes reports each week on navigation channel conditions for commercial river users.