The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District completed a breach closure on levee L550 near Watson, Missouri Saturday.
This initial closure of breach L-550-A-I near river mile 542.8 stops the inflows of water, thereby allowing for the start of follow-on construction activities aimed at increasing the level of flood risk management to approximately the 4% Annual Chance Exceedance (25-yr) level for this section of the L-550 Levee System until the system can be fully rehabilitated, reported the Corps.
The original contract of $22.1 million was awarded to Weston Solutions, Inc. of West Chester, PA June 11, 2019, and construction began July 8.
“ The USACE team has partnered very well with Weston Solutions and their key subcontractor, Hendrickson, to place 250,000 cubic yards of alluvial sand in the initial breach closure ”, said Dustin Davis, USACE Resident Engineer .
There are more than 500 miles of levees on the Missouri, Platte and Elkhorn rivers, and tributaries that have 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 execute.