Kansas River Bank Stabilization and Post-Project Conditions

In addition to the original design and construction information from the 2003 EWRI publication, this paper also includes follow-up regarding the Kansas River bank stabilization project condition. The Kansas River is a major Missouri River tributary. The project site is 43 miles (70 kilometers) upstream from their confluence, with a drainage area of 58,610 square miles (151,800 square kilometers). The channel ranges from 590 to 1180 feet (180 to 360 meters) wide in an 8860-foot (2,700-meter) floodplain. The project area was a channel bulge along the left bank of the river, at an inflection point where the channel meanders from the north (left) side of the floodplain to the south side of the floodplain. A bridge is located downstream, in the middle of an east-west reach; downstream of the bridge, another meander returns the channel to the north. The sandy channel banks ranged from 20 to 30 feet (6 to 9 meters) tall, stood at slopes from 1.0 horizontal to 1.0 vertical, to nearly vertical, and tended to collapse into the channel thalweg and washed away whenever water levels receded.