Dredging below McAlpine Locks,showing cutterhead of dredge Bill Holman
The navigation channel below McAlpine Locks accumulates sediment during high water periods and so must be dredged every year
The cutter-suction dredge (or dredger) Bill Holman (built in 1978 by Ellicott Dredges, LLC) is owned by Luhr Bros., which is contracted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to perform the work
As the cutterhead rotates, its teeth churn up the riverbed sediment, which is then sucked up and piped to a deposit area
In this photo, the cutterhead has been raised out of the water so a crewman aboard the workboat Buddy can remove debris caught in the teeth
At lower left is one of the guy wires which are used to swing the cutterhead back and forth
At upper right is the downstream end of Sand Island