Work begins on Chain of Rocks levee berms

Work has started on another phase of large berms of sand and dirt designed to improve the Chain of Rocks Canal levee. The goal of the $46.4 million project is to make the levee, owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, capable of withstanding a 500-year flood. When new FEMA maps come out in March, they are expected to show that the Chain of Rocks levee system and four other metro-east levee systems do not meet the new standards for whether a levee is capable of withstanding a 100-year flood. The corps has been adding berms at the Chain of Rocks levee for the past couple of years, and at the current level of federal funding, the work is expected to continue another five years. The project also includes adding relief wells, which allow water to get out from below the levee without causing erosion, and a new water-pumping station. In the current phase of work, an 18-acre berm of sand and dirt is being built along the east side of the Chain of Rocks Canal levee, north of Interstate 270.

Source: http://www.bnd.com/news/local/story/201357.html