OMAHA, NE – A contract for $1.75 million has been awarded to Western Contracting Corporation of Sioux City, Iowa for repairs to a backwater site located within the Ponca State Park boundaries in Dixon County, Neb. The backwater serves as shallow water habitat to benefit the federally endangered pallid sturgeon and provides feeding, spawning, and rearing habitat for native fish and other aquatic species, but it was damaged during the 2011 Missouri River flood. Repairs are needed to restore the intended habitat function of the site and prevent it from degrading further.
Work is expected to begin in January 2016 and will include excavation and discharge of accreted Missouri River sediments, placement of earthen fill between the two backwater areas, and construction of rock revetment with a covering of fieldstone, topsoil and native grass seed. The project’s estimated completion will be at the end of 2016.
Repairs are being made through the Corps’ Operation and Maintenance Program, which, among other things, operates and maintains projects previously constructed through the Missouri River Recovery Program. Maintenance of these projects helps to ensure that these projects continue to fulfill the requirements of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2003 Amended Biological Opinion for the Operation of the Missouri River Main Stem Reservoir System, Operation and Maintenance of the Missouri River Bank Stabilization and Navigation Project, and Operation of the Kansas River Reservoir System.
More information about this project can be found at: http://cdm16021.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16021coll7/id/2160.
Release no. 20151209-001