Marysville Ring Levee progressing
Official: City will eventually have highest level of protection in the Central Valley
In a few years, Marysville might become the impromptu destination when floodwaters start to rise in Yuba-sutter rivers. Despite the fact the city is shaped like a bowl, work on the Marysville Ring Levee will make the city one of the safest throughout the valley once improvements are completed, experts say.
“Marysville will have the highest level of protection anywhere in the Central Valley of California once the ring levee is completed,” said Tom Engler, project manager of the levee work with MBK Engineers.
The state made it a requirement for all urban areas to have a 200-year level of flood protection – or a one-in-200 chance of flooding in any given year. Engler said Marysville and its 7.6 miles of ring levee will “far exceed” that mandate once work is completed.
“The Marysville Ring Levee was authorized for a 300-year level of protection, but hydrology has changed, so we will be well above that,” he said.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Marysville Levee District and the Central Valley Flood Protection Board are in charge of the ring levee work. The most recent estimate for how much the project will cost once everything is completed is around $115 million, Engler said.
Because of work the city did on Reclamation District 784’s levees following the 1997 flood, the federal government is essentially crediting Marysville for the rest of the work on the ring levee. The deal, Engler said, is saving the city of Marysville about $10 million in project costs officials would’ve had to spend otherwise.
But the savings don’t end there.
“Because of the corps projects, (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) has held off on remapping the city, which would’ve made it a requirement of homeowners to purchase flood insurance. This project is keeping that remapping from occurring,” Engler said.
Once the levee work is done, FEMA won’t have to remap, so homeowners won’t be required to purchase the insurance, which can run about $3,000 on average per house, he said.
What’s left
Construction on the ring levee is being carried out in phases – the first phase was started in 2010 and completed in 2012, which cost approximately $21 million. Phase 4A is the most recently completed portion of the levee work, which was finished in 2017 and cost approximately $1.5 million.
Engler said the work to reinforce the levees includes a combination of slurry wall, seepage berms and erosion protection – all of which are intended to reduce the likelihood of through and underseepage.
Construction crews recently started on Phase 2A North back in May – estimated to cost $5 million – and are expected to complete the job by the end of the summer, Engler said.
Later this year, a contract will be awarded for Phase 2A South ($10 million), likely in September, with construction beginning next year.
The remaining three phases, estimated to cost approximately $53 million total, will be carried out starting in 2020 and will likely finish sometime in 2022.