Flood repairs steam ahead

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VIDEO: Army Corps of Engineers rebuilds levee near Hamburg, Iowa

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HAMBURG, Iowa — Come spring or high water, Hamburg will be ready.

The big hole the flooding Missouri River carved out of the levee protecting this corner of southwest Iowa should be plugged by this time next month, officials said.

And the fast-moving Army Corps of Engineers repair job is more than a patch.

The levee cavity — longer than a football field — was carved out to more than a mile long, creating a 6,300-foot gap in the towering earthen wall built more than 60 years ago to hold back the river.

A new levee is under construction in a location that arcs 700 feet farther from the river than the old levee's alignment. The new piece will tie into the stubs of the original embankment and will provide greater protection from flood risk, corps officials said.

Hamburg-area levee repairs are at the top of the corps' priorities following the devastating and historic three-month flood that swamped the region last summer.

"The public safety concerns here are significant,'' said Tim Gouger, an Omaha-based corps engineer and the project manager. "That's why this project was funded first and why its construction is first.''

Hamburg, a town of about 1,200, fought for its life during the flood.

The Missouri partially breached the levee five miles west of Hamburg three times in early June. The full breach occurred June 16, creating a desperate rush to finish reinforcing and elevating an existing irrigation ditch levee on the edge of Hamburg as floodwaters slowly rolled toward town.

Water would have been about eight feet deep on Hamburg's main street had the secondary levee failed, the corps said.

Floodwaters left behind scour holes up to 60 feet deep in farmland. Acres of floodwaters still pool in woods and farmland blanketed with sand and flood debris left behind by the river.

But repair work at the breach site is rolling along. About 30 workers driving yellow and green diesel-powered machines scrape, push, load, haul, unload and pack sand and clay from dawn to dusk seven days a week. Overnight crews refuel and repair the machines.

Many of the workers are local farmers, hired by the contractor, Weston Solutions of Pennsylvania.

Unseasonably mild weather and a lack of snow have helped the pace of repairs, but winter wasn't a problem, Gouger said.

"Rain is an enemy,'' he said. "Cold and freezing are not.''

Only remnants of the old levee — shack-sized knobs of earth topped with survey stakes — remain.

Construction crews dug out the old levee and stockpiled its sand and clay for use in the new embankment. The corps also is taking sediment off nearby farmland and using it to help build the levee core.

The full width of the new levee's base was about four feet high late last week and growing by the hour as scrapers dumped loads of soil and compactors and drum rollers flattened the piles into eight-inch layers.

"We're just bringing it up,'' said Kent Spence, the corps' construction representative on site. "We have about nine or 10 more feet to add to get to full height.''

Simultaneously, loads of clay were being deposited along the levee's riverward face to begin building a soil face five feet thick and impervious to water. The clay face on the landward side will be two feet thick.

Kim Thomas, chief of emergency management for the corps, said the work is being done to strict corps standards. Layers of compacted soil are surveyed and tested daily.

The new levee will withstand the force of floodwater better in its new alignment, Gouger said. The original levee created a pinch point for passing water that could weaken the structure.

It's also cheaper to set back the new levee on solid ground than to fill deep scour holes and rebuild on the old site, Gouger said.

Two repair projects are under way near Hamburg. The one west of Hamburg recently received $114 million in federal appropriations. A project to repair the breach that flooded nearby Percival received $47 million.

Both are expected to be completed for significantly less money, Gouger said.

The Hamburg levee's final tab could be closer to $40 million to $50 million, he said.

Work on a levee breach in Missouri, created about three miles south of the Hamburg site to help drain water during the flood, has been held up because of problems gaining access from landowners.

Back in Hamburg, the new location of the rebuilt levee initially annoyed local farmer Glen Stenzel.

"I thought they should put it back where it was,'' he said.

Stenzel ultimately agreed with corps officials, who explained that levees rebuilt on the same site tend to fail.

The new location, however, creates financial challenges for the landowners who pay taxes to maintain the levee. Although levees are built by the corps, they are turned over to local governments or landowners to maintain.

Levee districts must obtain the land. Sometimes the land is purchased. Sometimes an owner gives the land to the district.

In Hamburg's case, Stenzel said, the landowner signed an easement allowing the levee to cross the property but retained ownership. The landowner is allowed make up for lost crop revenue by selling the land to a state agency as a wildlife management area, for example, or by allowing hunting and fishing for a fee.

The repairs are in a race with the river's annual early spring rise. That water is caused by melting plains snow and usually starts flowing past Hamburg about two months from now.

If the weather holds and crews sustain their work tempo, it is possible that the Hamburg- and Percival-area projects could be completed ahead of a March 1 goal and resources freed up to work on repairs elsewhere, corps officials said.

Stenzel said he was pleased with the progress.

"They're moving along quicker than most people anticipated they would,'' he said.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1127, david.hendee@owh.com

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VIDEO:Army Corps of Engineers rebuilds levee near Hamburg, Iowa

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