The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Sacramento District, awarded $6.2 million to Newland Entities Inc. of Marysville, California, on July 28, 2015, to begin levee construction this summer on the Hamilton City Flood Damage Reduction and Ecosystem Restoration project.
The project, located approximately 10 miles west of Chico, is the first in the nation to be authorized for construction under the Corps’ guidelines to develop multipurpose projects that include both flood risk reduction and ecosystem restoration.
“ This project truly is a multi-purpose project, ” said Nicole Ortega-Jewell, chief of civil works project management for the Sacramento District . “ We’re giving the river the extra room it naturally wants to take to reduce flood risk, while at the same time, invigorating a large area of wildlife.”
Divided into two construction phases, the $67.9 million project will construct a new 6.8-mile setback levee, designed to not only lower flood risk for Hamilton City, but also reconnect and restore nearly 1,500 acres of natural habitat once separated by the deteriorated existing “J” levee.
This first phase will tie into the existing “J” levee on the southern side of Dunning Slough and construct the southern half of the levee. Work is expected to begin this fall and be complete by fall 2016.
When funded, the remaining work will begin construction two miles north of Hamilton City and end at its interface with the Phase 1 levee at Dunning Slough as well as complete the ecosystem restoration component.