Omaha, Neb. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District recently awarded a $1.8 million contract for critical repairs to the Omaha Flood Protection Project.
This work will address damages to the project caused by the Flood of 2011 and include the following:
- Erosion repair at the Minne Lusa drainage ditch and the Grace Street diversion structure;
- Structure repair at the Kinder Morgan drainage structure and the Riverview Park diversion structure;
- Erosion repair at the approach light pad for Eppley Airfield;
- Silt removal at the Douglas Street Pump Station;
- Removal of the flap gat e at Jones Street;
- Grouting at the Omaha floodwall;
- Silt removal from drainage ditches at 5 locations.
The work on these critical repairs is scheduled to be completed by March 1.
Also, in-house geotechnical investigations will be conducted along the Omaha Flood Protection Project to determine what additional work may be needed.
Follow-on repairs that have already been identified include rehabilitation at the Homer Diversion, landside repair at the Riverview pump station and pump station repairs at Hickory Street, Jones Street and Grover Diversion. These repairs, while important, don’t represent as great a life safety risk as the critical repairs and are scheduled to begin in the fall of 2012.
The contract was awarded to SDIC Contractors of Honolulu, Hawaii.
Construction on the original Omaha Flood Protection Project began in July 1946 and was substantially completed in 1950. The project has three primary components: a 9. 3 mile long earthen levee in the north; a 5,730 linear feet reinforced concrete floodwall; and 3.46 miles of earthen levee extending from the floodwall to the south. The project principally provides flood risk reduction for roughly 9 square miles of industrial and residential land that includes the Omaha Power Project District Plant, Eppley Airfield, Carter Lake and other portions of north Omaha.
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 Omaha District Systems Restoration Team (SRT) was established to focus the vast skills and abilities of the district to execute those repairs. The SRT will bring innovative, world-class solutions to restore levees in the PL 84-99 program as well as the mainstem dams and related flood control structures to their authorized level of flood risk reduction.