Levee improvements continue in Marysville
Ring levee work nears halfway point
Four phases down, four to go.
When crews complete their current task on the Marysville Ring levee sometime next month, they will be halfway done with the overall project.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently completed improvements to a section of levee just south of the Fifth Street Bridge – known as Phase 2A South – running along
Biz Johnson Drive. The work saw crews degrade a section of the waterside embankment in order to get inside the levee to construct a 2,622-foot cutoff wall – a barrier that helps prevent throughand under-seepage during prolonged periods of high water – before reconstructing the degraded embankment with an impervious slope blanket.
“Work on the (cutoff) wall was completed on September 25 and the reconstruction of the embankment was completed Nov. 26,” said Roberta Tassey, senior project manager for USACE. “They are currently constructing a ramp and cleanup on site that will take them into December, depending on the rain.”
The work began in April 2019 and is the fourth phase completed to date as part of the Marysville Ring Levee Project. Approximately $84 million has been spent improving the levee so far.
The first phase of the project was completed in north Marysville in 2013, and work has been ongoing since. Other areas that have been improved so far include a small portion of levee near the Binney Junction and a section just north of the Fifth Street Bridge.
Work remains
The
four remaining phases still needed in order to complete the project are estimated to cost up to $50 million.
Tassey said there are plans to start two different phases next April.
One project – Phase 2C – will be to a 1,100foot section of levee on the south side of town just West of the E Street Bridge. The work will be similar to the most previous phase – degrading the levee, constructing a cutoff wall and then reconstructing the embankment. The work is expected to be completed by November 2020.
The other project – Phase 3 – that will start next spring will be to the levee on the east side of town just North of Simpson Lane, where a cutoff wall will be established. This reach of the levee will be the longest section improved and is expected to take until November 2022 to complete.
Phase 2B is expected to begin in April 2021 and will include a 1,000-foot open trench cutoff wall directly to the east of the E Street Bridge running up to the Simpson Lane area. It will likely be completed in November 2021.
Lastly, once Phase 2A South and Phase 2C are completed, as well as Phase 2C and Phase 2B, crews will connect the different walls together – Phase 4.
“The program is on schedule for overall completion in Fiscal Year 2024,” Tassey said.