SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Every year the city of Sioux Falls clears tons of silt and sand from the Big Sioux River.
It’s a safety issue. They clear the river bed to make room for more water in case of heavy runoff and flooding.
Right now if you drive by Falls Park near the Farmers Market area you can’t help but notice the familiar yellow color of construction equipment. And If you look closely something sticks out. It’s not everyday you see a bulldozer like this one, that weighs a hundred thousand pounds, moving around in the Big Sioux River. The bulldozer is moving tons of sand to the bank, so an excavator can load it into dump trucks.
“Over the years that river fills with silt and sand we need to clean that out to make extra capacity if we do have flooding events,” said Street Operations Manager Dustin Hansen.
Sioux Falls has a team that maintains the levees through the city. The bulldozer operator can’t see the material so he actually feels his way across the river.
“He’s pushing that sand up and he can feel the bottom as he goes there is a difference in the material, he is just trying to get the stuff that is deposited there not past the original channel bottom,” said Matt Weiss, Watershed Maintenance Supervisor.
To allow the bulldozer to do its work, the city can limit the flow of water using the dam rebuilt in 2011. It’s been a dry winter and that also helps. The crew does the work this time of year because the ground is frozen and better able to withstand the heavy weight of the construction equipment. The sand which comes from fields up north is removed and re-purposed.
“We have a couple contractors in town that will take this they are screening out rock, they are reusing this sand for fill along foundations or wherever it is allowable, they will run geo tech analyses on it and if it is acceptable material they will reuse it for building construction and under concrete pads, whatever”, said Weiss.
So the city is not paying to dispose of the material. Weiss calls it a win-win for the city taxpayers.
