The US Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island District, invites the public to a naming ceremony for the new heavy-duty crane “Quad Cities” on Thursday, May 13th at 4 pm in the River Heritage Park in Davenport.
Public tours on the crane ship are offered from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. before the ceremony and until 6 p.m. after the ceremony. Additional public tours are offered from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Friday May 14th and are required for anyone wishing to tour the ship. Face covering is required for those attending the ceremony or on tours.
Due to limited parking at River Heritage Park, ceremony attendees are asked to park in the adjacent Quad-City Times parking lot on the other side of Highway 67.
The crane ship
The new Quad Cities are the largest heavy lift crane ships on the Mississippi and are dedicated to the cities of Davenport, Bettendorf, Rock Island, Moline and East Moline. It replaces the Rock Island District’s older “Quad Cities” crane as part of the Mississippi River Project structural maintenance fleet located at the Mississippi River Project Office in Pleasant Valley.
The older “Quad Cities” have a load capacity of 350 tons and have been used by the Rock Island District since 1986.
The new crane, a Seatrax S140 series, model S14440, housed on a barge, has a 193 foot boom that can rotate a full 360 degrees. The 500 ton lift capacity is specifically designed for lifting locks and dam gates in the Corps of Engineers facilities on the Upper Mississippi River.
The crane and crew are considered a regional asset in support of projects outside the Rock Island District on the Mississippi, Illinois Waterway, and other areas of the country.
The Mississippi River Project Office is the largest federal employer in Scott County and has 275 employees, nearly 100 of whom live and work in the Quad Cities.
The project is responsible for the maintenance of the 9-foot canal on 314 miles of the Upper Mississippi River from Potosi, Wisconsin, to Saverton, Missouri, including the operation and maintenance of 14 locks, 11 dams and 1,200 regulatory structures.
