ARMOR 1 News - The Waterways Journal

Venerable MSU Continues Mission, With Armor 1 On The Horizon Two Mat Sinking Unit crew members work aboard the unit’s cement barge just below Neptune Pass near Triumph, La., as the crude oil tanker Xanthos passes by. (Photo by Frank McCormack)

Two Mat Sinking Unit crew members work aboard the unit’s cement barge just below Neptune Pass near Triumph, La., as the crude oil tanker Xanthos passes by. (Photo by Frank McCormack)

Venerable MSU Continues Mission, With Armor 1 On The Horizon

March 15, 2024

For more than three quarters of a century, the Vicksburg Engineer District’s Mat Sinking Unit (MSU) has deployed in low-water months anywhere from Cairo, Ill., to Head of… Read More

Bank Grading Unit Goes To Work On Lower Miss The new, $25.5 million bank grader, named Grader 1, is at work for the first time in revetment operations on the Lower Mississippi. It replaces a 74-year-old grader. (Photo courtesy of Memphis Engineer District)

The new, $25.5 million bank grader, named Grader 1, is at work for the first time in revetment operations on the Lower Mississippi. It replaces a 74-year-old grader. (Photo courtesy of Memphis Engineer District)

Bank Grading Unit Goes To Work On Lower Miss

September 1, 2023

The Memphis Engineer District’s new bank grader, Grader 1, is already hard at work helping to provide riverbank stabilization. Delivered to Memphis in April and christened… Read More

Memphis Engineer District Welcomes $25.5 Million Bank Grading Unit

The Memphis Engineer District welcomed a new, $25.5 million Bank Grading Unit (BGU), April 11. Built over a period of three years, the unit replaces the district’s 74-year-old bank grader. The BGU creates perfectly sloped riverbanks that are then covered in articulated concrete mattresses for bank stabilization on the Lower Mississippi River. It will be named Grader 1. (Photo courtesy of Memphis Engineer District.)

Memphis Engineer District Welcomes $25.5 Million Bank Grading Unit

April 28, 2023

After three years of work and $25.5 million, the Memphis Engineer District’s new Bank Grading Unit (BGU) has arrived. The BGU was delivered April 11, docking at its… Read More

ARMOR 1 Construction Continues At Thoma-Sea A pair of welders at Thoma-Sea’s shipyard in Lockport, La., work in the hull of ARMOR 1, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ forthcoming replacement to the venerable Mat Sinking Unit, commissioned in 1948. (Photo by Frank McCormack)

A pair of welders at Thoma-Sea’s shipyard in Lockport, La., work in the hull of ARMOR 1, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ forthcoming replacement to the venerable Mat Sinking Unit, commissioned in 1948. (Photo by Frank McCormack)

ARMOR 1 Construction Continues At Thoma-Sea

April 28, 2023

The Vicksburg Engineer District’s Mat Sinking Unit (MSU), rarely ever even seen by the public but nonetheless hard at work each low-water season, is an indispensable part of… Read More

Mat Sinking Unit Marks 74th Year, New ARMOR 1 Due Out In 2024 The mv. Harrison bringing the revetment crew back to the MSU after lunch. (Photo by Frank McCormack)

The mv. Harrison bringing the revetment crew back to the MSU after lunch. (Photo by Frank McCormack)

Mat Sinking Unit Marks 74th Year, New ARMOR 1 Due Out In 2024

September 2, 2022

Somewhere south of Vicksburg, Miss., on the Mississippi River, there’s a crew numbering more than 275 working to do its part in keeping the river on its current course. Read More

Mat Sinking Unit Completes 2020 Season Col. Robert Hilliard, Vicksburg District commander, watches steel-cutting for ARMOR 1, the next-generation mat-sinking unit, at Thoma-Sea Shipyard.(Photo courtesy of Corps of Engineers)

Col. Robert Hilliard, Vicksburg District commander, watches steel-cutting for ARMOR 1, the next-generation mat-sinking unit, at Thoma-Sea Shipyard.(Photo courtesy of Corps of Engineers)

Mat Sinking Unit Completes 2020 Season

March 19, 2021

The Vicksburg Engineer District has announced the Corps of Engineers’ Mat Sinking Unit wrapped up its 2020 revetment season March 4. The historic unit returned to Vicksburg, Miss., March… Read More

Mat Sinking Unit Armors Mississippi River Banks Crew members aboard the Corps of Engineers’ Mat Sinking Unit prepare to begin laying a protective blanket of concrete squares on the Mississippi River bottom near St. Gabriel, La. (Photo by Frank McCormack)

Crew members aboard the Corps of Engineers’ Mat Sinking Unit prepare to begin laying a protective blanket of concrete squares on the Mississippi River bottom near St. Gabriel, La. (Photo by Frank McCormack)

Mat Sinking Unit Armors Mississippi River Banks

January 15, 2021

The river road through St. Gabriel, La., located on the left descending bank near Mile 200 on the Mississippi River, is a quiet stretch, with plots of farmland… Read More

Corps Revetment Team Looks To The Future MSU crew members transfer concrete squares from a deck barge onto the mat laying barge. Each deck barge holds about 500 squares, and the MSU crew can lay six or seven barges’ worth of squares per day. (Photo by Frank McCormack)

MSU crew members transfer concrete squares from a deck barge onto the mat laying barge. Each deck barge holds about 500 squares, and the MSU crew can lay six or seven barges’ worth of squares per day. (Photo by Frank McCormack)

Corps Revetment Team Looks To The Future

February 14, 2020

Near a bend in the Mississippi River above the Sunshine Bridge in Louisiana, scores of vehicles—some cars but mostly trucks—are parked along the crown of the levee and all… Read More