Minnesota City, Minn. — The Minnesota DNR is inching closer on the Lock and Dam 5 carp deterrent as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officially began designing the underwater Acoustic Deterrent System (uADS) at the site.
Based on statutory project timeline of completing the deterrent by June 30, 2029, Carli Wagner, DNR project coordinator, said the team remains on track to meet that overall deadline.
Although the U.S. Army Corps Research and Development Center recently began designing the uADS deterrent at Lock and Dam 5, Wagner said the design deadline might need to be extended beyond June 30, 2026.
"We have communicated with our funding source, the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council, that the timeline may need to be adapted based on what was originally planned when this appropriation was awarded," Wagner said.
The $12 million project remains on track to be completed in June of 2029. (File photo courtesy of Minnesota DNR)
Even though years of planning and interagency coordination has taken place, designing what will become the third carp deterrent like this in the country requires a bit more time for the design phase.
"DNR has been working as efficiently and quickly as possible on this project. As we've emphasized, it's very new. There's no other deterrent examples in Minnesota and the U.S. Army Corps – first time working on a deterrent," Wagner said.
Even if the design deadline is pushed further into 2026 past the mid-summer deadline, the overall construction timeline remains on track to see the project completed by June 30, 2029, she said.
"We're really going to start to see some tangible results for the design, and one thing I also wanted to emphasize is in … we are currently still on track for our original construction timeline," Wagner said.