River Bridge At Nebraska City Part Of Pinch Point Study For Flood Prevention
$34 million project would re-align the flood levee at Nebraska City and build 1000-feet long overflow bridges
By News Channel NebraskaJEFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — After a year of devastating flooding, several Midwestern states are joining together to try to identify bottlenecks along the Missouri River that can cause waters to back up and worsen flooding in certain areas.
Officials in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska teamed up to submit a draft study proposal Tuesday to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The study would identify levees, bridges or roads that cause the river to constrict.
Col. John Hudson, commander of the Corp's Omaha District, cautioned that fixing pinch points along the river is not a long-term solution because new problem spots could emerge elsewhere. The bigger challenge, he said, is the overall care and capacity of the Missouri River system, which includes six major dams in South Dakota, North Dakota and Montana.
The Corps has estimated that it could cost more than $1 billion to repair levees damaged by this year's flooding in the Missouri River basin.
At meetings in Nebraska City over the past couple of years, the corps has suggested that additional reservoir space is needed.
The Platte River, which flooded this spring, does not have a reservoir to regulate its flow.
Officials hoping to fix flood bottlenecks pointed to Iowa Highway 2 as one example.
The four-lane road was flooded and washed out along its approach to a Missouri River bridge that connects with Nebraska.
Highway engineers say part of the problem rests with a levee that juts closer to the river at that point, creating a narrow passageway for raging floodwaters.
The Iowa Department of Transportation has approved a $34 million project to re-align the levee and build a pair of 1,000-foot-long (305-meter-long) bridges before the road reaches the main Missouri River bridge.
By widening the path for flood waters, studies indicate the upstream water level could drop by as much as 1 foot during a major flood, said Charlie Purcell, director of the project delivery division at the Iowa Department of Transportation.
"It basically reduces the amount of water that kind of piles up upstream of the bridge location," Purcell said. "It will lessen the likelihood of levee overtopping."
