Sediment removal nearing completion

It’s been several years in the making – decades, depending on who you talk to – but the sediment removal project at the Aroma Park boat launch is almost complete.

The current iteration of removing sand and silt from that point of the Kankakee River was launched in September 2022 at the boat ramp, which is located in Potawatomi Park in Aroma Park.

It took more than two and a half years to get the engineering done, complete a mussel survey, secure the required permits and select a contractor for the long-awaited project.

Ben Wilson, the county’s transportation and development division manager, reported Thursday at the Kankakeee County Board’s Highways, Waterways and Buildings Committee meeting that the project is in its final phase.

“We’ve finished our survey to compare it against initial engineering,” he said. “We’ve been billed for the removal of 7,841 cubic yards of material, which, our initial estimate was about 7,200. We’re still within the grant number, which is good. We’re doing some final cleanup this week to satisfy some of the grant conditions.”

Wilson said he couldn’t give an exact date that the project will be completed, but he noted that there’s a small volume of sand that still has to be removed.

“On a good day, we’re removing 240 cubic yards of material out of the river, so we probably have about a little less than 500 yards to remove.”

An apron and gravel was placed on top of the boat ramp so the heavy equipment wouldn’t damage the concrete structure. Some additional cleanup will have to be done as well.

The Two Rivers Festival Car Show is scheduled for Aug. 16, and there shouldn’t be an issue with the event that is held in the parking lot.

“We’ve always been kind of looking at that date, saying there’s no reason to not make that date,” Wilson said. “We’ll be well ahead of that date, but we’ve always been thinking about that in the back of our minds to make sure we weren’t hindering some of the things Aroma Park likes to do. I’m very pleased that we’re on schedule to not have any issues with their schedule.”

State Sen. Patrick Joyce, D-Essex, said at the September 2022 launch that this kind of project has been talked about for decades. Joyce secured $1 million from the state to fund the work.

Christopher Burke Engineering of Indianapolis did the engineering work, and a $712,650 bid from JS McCullough Excavating of Coatesville was awarded in October.

The winter weather delayed the project until April 15.

Board member John Fetherling said he is looking forward to getting his boat in the river and has been impressed by McCullough’s work.

“The guy does a lot of work with doing little damage,” Fetherling said.

One change in the disposal of the sand/silt was that it has being trucked to Kankakee Recycling, 2405 Waldron Road. Wilson said that it’s up to the contractor to dispose of the sand, per the contract.

The county had an agreement with the Illinois State Rifle Association’s gun range in Bonfield to accept the sand. Wilson said the contractor decided to take it to nearby Kankakee Recycling.

The purpose of the project is to remove enough sand in the area wide enough to allow boat traffic for emergency rescue operations and for recreational use.

How soon boats can be launched at the site has yet to be determined.