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Flooding in the United States and the stress it placed on already aging or previously damaged levee systems dominated the mid-year infrastructure news. The Mississippi River’s cresting and the emergency flood defense measures that were instituted from Minnesota all the way to New Orleans garnered much of the coverage. But the Missouri River’s later surge caused significant headaches too, many of which were not adequately covered in the media.
The political stalemate in Washington also overshadowed the flood problems, as no one seemed willing to commit to properly funding more levee repairs and upgrades (such as have been ongoing in the New Orleans region since Hurricane Katrina).
Now, it’s been announced that the US Army Corps of Engineers will receive significant federal funds to assist in the Missouri River’s levee system repair.
The $8.6 billion disaster aid deal between Congress and the White House includes roughly $1.7 billion for the US Army Corps of Engineers. A significant portion of the Corps’ focus will be on improving the Missouri River Basin levees.
“We expect a majority of qualified repairs to levees and our operating projects will be funded,” said Brig. Gen. John R. McMahon, Northwestern Division Commander. “This supplemental appropriation allows us to move from repairs to a 25-year level of flood risk reduction to making full repairs that offer greater risk reduction.”
Geosynthetics have been used extensively in rebuilding the levee system in New Orleans. In some zones, even on extremely soft soils geosynthetic technologies have enabled levee heights to be tripled upon their original design.
