GUTTENBURG, Iowa — The Army Corps of Engineers, which controls navigable inland waterways, awarded a $5.5 million contract to an Iowa company to reconfigure a couple miles around McMillan Island. Newt Marine Service of Dubuque will begin the project in mid-May, the Corps said. This is Stage 3 in an ongoing project of new island creation, shoreline protection, and main channel and backwater dredging. The Corps has been concerned a long time about habitat rehabilitation upriver from Guttenburg. Stage 1 started in 2025. Stage 2, in the North Ferry Slough, will begin as soon as Stage 1 is completed. In announcing the Stage 3 contract, the Corps noted that it has completed 60 habitat projects totaling 100,000 acres over 40 years in its Upper Mississippi Distric north of St. Louis.
