SALLISAW, Okla. – Navigation is a key mission for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Tulsa District. Below the surface of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, conditions constantly change. As water levels rise and fall, sediment shifts, and unseen hazards can quickly turn a safe passage down the river into a more dangerous journey.
Within the Tulsa District, the Navigation Office leads the mission to keep the river channel safe and open for commerce. Its two-person hydrographic survey team, comprised of Dawn Birth, civil engineer, Tulsa District, and Joe Schmalz, civil engineering technician, Tulsa District, performs work critical to maintaining the channel’s 9-foot depth, as mandated by Congress. Their data is a...
Mickey Dial (left) contractor, Stantec, and Morgan Domingue (right), geotechnical engineer, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Tulsa District, inspect and measure a rock core sample at the stilling basin below Keystone Dam in Sand Springs, Okla., Nov. 17, 2025. Rock core samples provide USACE engineers with data about the composition of soils beneath the earth's surface and aid in construction design and planning.
The Dam Safety Production Center of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is collecting rock core samples in the area around Keystone Dam. USACE geotechnical engineers will use the data to understand the geological features of the soil at depths up to 210 feet.
By collecting rock core samples, USACE engineers can design the project and plan for the construction phase.
The Keystone Dam Safety Modification Project is a dam safety initiative to reduce risk of overtopping from statistically possible storm events. The project is in the pre-construction engineering and design phase, which is expected to last several years.
