Dredging the Missouri River - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

The Missouri Flood of 2011 changed the landscape of the river.

It closed off some water ways and formed large sandbars in other areas.

Today--they are dredging the river trying to alleviate issues that could arise with a harsh winter.

The flood of 2011 changed a lot about the makeup of the Missouri River and how some waterways flow into it.

"Right now we've got a project going on to remove a sandbar that formed last year during the flood This sand bar formed across the outlet for the fox island causeway. at this point we're starting construction and we're moving basically punching a hole through that sandbar so that water on the inside of that causeway can get out to the river."

Bruce Engelhardt says with the State Water Commission says the flood also moved the mouth of the Heart river a quarter mile.... Now they are working to widen that mouth.

He says if Ice build up occurs--this will help alleviate the problem.

For Burleigh County the problem they are working to solve is an issue with the flow of the causeway.

"The Sandbar closed off the exit to the south side of the causeway so all the water any kind of water we got on the inside of the causeway had to go through the north and flow basically up against the river to push out."

By opening it up to the south it will also help handle future floods.

(Marcus Hall/ ) "For spring flooding possibilities, we wanted to make sure the water ways were open. Of course as the river comes up and down we wanted to find some additional sand deposited in this area so some maintenance long term will have to be done."

The dredging should be finished for the Fox Island causeway by the end of the month.

Hall says the Fox Island project costs 140,000 dollars.

The estimated cost on the west side of the river is 300,000 dollars.