Repair of a broken Missouri River Basin levee system begins; permanent repair to take years

By BRENT MARTIN

St. Joseph Post

Aerial view of L575 breach near Nebraska City, NE on March 16th (Photo courtesy of US Army Corps of Engineers)

Repair of the broken Missouri River basin levee system is underway, but an Army Corps of Engineers’ official says it will be years before levees return to pre-flood condition.

Deputy District Engineer Ted Streckfuss in the Corps Omaha office says contracts have been let for preliminary repairs of three levee breaches near Hamburg, Iowa with a fourth set to be let next week. Streckfuss says it’s important to make the repairs, because the Missouri River is out of its banks and is cutting a different channel.

“It’s very important that the Corps of Engineers focuses attention on filling those breaches to retrain the river and then from there begin the process of rehabilitating the levees in order to get them to back to a state where they can provide some level of protection to the communities and the ag interests behind those levee systems,” Streckfuss tells St. Joseph Post.

Flooding this year broke 16 federal levees and damaged nine others in the Corps’ Omaha district. Floodwaters overtopped and breached four non-federal levees.

The Clear Creek, Nebraska Levee breached March 22nd. (Photo by US Army Corps of Engineers)

The Corps is concentrating on Hamburg for a number of reasons, but one in particular is the effect of the flood on Interstate 29. Breached levees allowed floodwaters not only to flow over I-29, but to heavily damage the interstate.

“I-29 has been impacted by the flood,” Streckfuss says. “We’re looking to, again, fill those breaches, begin the process of preventing water from flowing behind the levees and trying to get the system operational again.”

Flooding just across the state line in Iowa prompted the Missouri Department of Transportation to close I-29 just north of St. Joseph. It remains closed at the 57-mile marker with only local traffic allowed on the interstate in northwest Missouri. I-29 handles as many as 12,000 travelers each day. MoDOT advises travelers in Kansas City to take I-35 north to I-80 and back over the I-29. St. Joseph area traffic is advised to use U.S. Route 71 north into Iowa.

Flooding damaged pavement leading to Missouri River bridges at Rulo and Brownville, Nebraska. MoDOT is working to repair U.S. 159 and 136 so that I-29 can be partially re-opened in northwest Missouri with a means to cross the Missouri River into Nebraska.

Streckfuss says the flood did extensive damage to the system.

“The scope and extent of the damages, very likely in the billions of dollars, will take time in order to completely effect repair,” Streckfuss says. “All we can do is triage the damages, begin the process of rehabilitating those levee systems back into a position where they’re providing levels of protection.”

Streckfuss says the Corps will take immediate steps to shore up the system, then look to make permanent repairs, but the cost of repairing the levee system will be so high Streckfuss says it is likely Congress will need to approve an emergency appropriation to pay for the repairs.