Omaha, Neb. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District, awarded Wednesday a $2.7 million contract to repair the causeway that connects Pierre, S.D., to LaFramboise Island that is situated in the Missouri River.
The causeway provides a path for utility lines and a water main that connects the city to four of its drinking water wells that are located on LaFramboise. Constructed in the 1960s to divert the Missouri River south of the island and away from downtown Pierre, the 1,400-foot structure provides the only access to the island via a road atop the causeway.
During the Flood of 2011, the causeway sustained severe damage from the high releases of floodwaters out of Oahe Dam. A section of the causeway was partially washed away, rendering the road and water main unusable.
"Following the Flood of 2011, we quickly identified the need to restore the causeway," said Jerome Stolinski, the Operations and Maintenance Program Manager for the Omaha District Systems Restoration Team. "We’re restoring the basic structure of the causeway and coordinating with the City of Pierre to allow them to restore their utility lines and water main."
The $2.7 million contract includes demolition and removal of existing surfaces and damaged utilities along the causeway and then the installation of embankment, geotextile fabric and rock riprap to buttress the structure. Some 18,700 cubic yards of material will be used to construct the embankment.
"We’ve worked with the city to identify sources to borrow that material from. The first site is adjacent to the causeway and is material that the city stockpiled for use on their emergency levees," Stolinski said. "The second borrow source is off of Harrison Drive. We’ll do our best to minimize the impacts, but traffic may be impacted by trucks travelling along Sioux Drive."
Additionally, five existing 60-inch corrugated metal pipes that provided pass through for the Missouri River for water quality purposes, will be removed and replaced by two 8-feet by 4-feet double cell concrete box culverts.
During construction, the contractor will coordinate work to allow the City of Pierre to reinstall utilities and the water main that had been damaged by floodwaters.
The contract was awarded to Ainsworth-Benning of Wyoming Inc. out of their Rapid City, S.D., office.
In response to the Flood of 2011, the District Engineer for the Omaha District identified a need for a special execution cell or team to engage in time-sensitive rehabilitation of flood controls structures - including dams and levees - in the Missouri River Basin.
Drawing on funding provided by the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act signed Dec. 23, 2011, by President Barack Obama, the Systems Restoration Team was established to focus the vast skills and abilities of the district to execute an estimated $280 million in repairs on 18 levee repair projects and $234 million on some 100 projects at the mainstem dams and related flood control structures along the Missouri River.
For regular updates on the repair efforts to flood control structures in the Missouri River Basin, visit the Omaha District’s Flood 2011 Repairs web page at http://www.nwo.usace.army.mil/op-e/srt.html.