Improving the embankment will strengthen the Corps’ navigation mission while simultaneously improve the ecosystem’s habitat quality, creating a safer environment for wildlife.”

Nick Castellane, Corps of Engineers’ project manager

A new island has emerged from the backwaters of the Mississippi just north of Hastings.
No, this is not a geological miracle, but the beginning of a years-long effort from the Army Corps of Engineers to protect Lock and Dam #2 and the embankment which creates the channel for barges, boats and all manner of river traffic.
The nearly 3,300-foot embankment was constructed in 1930 and is part of the final stretch of the Mississippi River Greenway that ends downtown, connecting the City of Hastings to the Twin Cities via greenway.
In the following century since being built, the embankment has seen the extremes of Minnesota’s climate from ice to wind to waves. Regular flooding in particular has damaged vegetation on the embankment which only furthers erosion on the site.
That century of erosion has taken its toll and in order to protect the embankment from future erosion, the Army Corps of Engineers announced a plan in October 2024 to construct an artificial island that could bear the brunt of nature’s wrath.
“The goal of the Lock and Dam 2 protective island is to safeguard the existing embankment on the upstream, windward side acting as a buffer from wind and wave erosion,” according to the 2024 press release from the Army Corps of Engineers.
That work can now quite literally be seen rising from the depths.
The island will break large waves before they can hit the embankment and lessen the force of ice, which can often be seen pushing up onto the beach during the winter.
Beyond simply protecting the embankment, the construction of the island is being used to benefit river traffic and to create habitat for local wildlife.
The island itself is made of river silt and sediment that has been dredged from the Mississippi channel near Schaar’s Bluff. The Mississippi navigation channel measures 9 feet deep but must be regularly dredged as silt and sediment flow through the famously muddy river.
Sediment from the channel is being dredged in order to provide the material for the island itself, which deepens the channel and protects the barges that pass through it.
It is currently estimated that the island will be made of roughly 300,000 cubic yards of sediment, a quantity of silt that is estimated to fill about 430 barges.
The island will also be seeded with local plants including tall grasses and native trees in order to create new habitat for local wildlife. The island is also expected to provide habitat for fish overwintering.
“Improving the embankment will strengthen the Corps’ navigation mission while simultaneously improve the ecosystem’s habitat quality, creating a safer environment for wildlife,” said Nick Castellane, Corps of Engineers’ project manager.
Just how much does it cost to build a new island in the Mississippi?
The Army Corps of Engineers awarded Three Oaks Construction the contract for creating the island at $10 million. That amount is about half the cost of the central water treatment plant planned to break ground later this fall in Hastings to treat city water for PFAS.
Work began on the project in the spring of this year with crews working 20-24 hours a day moving about six barges full of sediment daily.
Dredging is planned through 2026 with the project expected to be completed by fall of 2027 with grading and planting on the new island.