The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District, awarded last week a $12 million construction contract to Klutina River Contractors of Irvine, California, to continue interim repairs on the Missouri River Levee System L-594.
The focus of this contract will be the closure of two of the outlet breaches on the levee system directly west of Thurman, Iowa. The third and final breach that would then remain on the levee system may be added to the project via modification at a later date.
According to USACE, these initial beach closures will provide an interim level of flood risk management benefits to the area behind the levee system until final repairs can be made on the system. The period of performance for these repairs is approximately four months.
“The extent of damages on the Missouri River Levee Systems has required that the team take incremental steps in making the repairs, due to funding and contractual constraints, and this contract is the next step in making those repairs and restoring the Missouri River Levee Systems,” said Jeff Bohlken, Program Manager for the Omaha District Systems Restoration Team.
Just upstream on Missouri River Levee System L-611-614 the outlet breach was closed on December 6. This is the first closed system on the left bank of the Missouri River that was damaged during the March 2019 flooding.
There are more than 500 miles of levees on the Missouri, Platte and Elkhorn rivers, and tributaries that experienced significant flood damage since March 2019. Due to the magnitude of damage along these levees, repair of the levee system efforts will take an extended period of time to complete, said USACE.