Stimulus-funded Marysville Ring Levee phase one completed

Published June 7, 2013
Mark Ellis, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District project manager, left, and John Nicoletti, chairman of the Yuba County Water Agency and member of the Yuba County Board of Supervisors, examine the fully-completed first phase of the Marysville Ring Levee project in Marysville, Calif., June 7, 2013. Pavement was added in late May over the top of structural reinforcements completed in December 2012. Pavement was delayed by the onset of winter rains. (U.S. Army photo by Robert Kidd / Released)

Mark Ellis, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District project manager, left, and John Nicoletti, chairman of the Yuba County Water Agency and member of the Yuba County Board of Supervisors, examine the fully-completed first phase of the Marysville Ring Levee project in Marysville, Calif., June 7, 2013. Pavement was added in late May over the top of structural reinforcements completed in December 2012. Pavement was delayed by the onset of winter rains. (U.S. Army photo by Robert Kidd / Released)

MARYSVILLE, Calif. (June 7, 2013) – The icing is on the cake now as asphalt has been placed atop the completed first phase of the Marysville Ring Levee Project. Paving was the last remaining construction activity for this phase of levee improvement work.

Funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, some 4,600 linear feet of deep-soil-mixed cutoff wall was installed as of December 2012 – the first full two years of construction in a four-phase project to reduce Marysville’s flood risk. Placement of the asphalt roadway atop this segment of levee had to wait for drier weather.

The ring levee project is a partnership between the Sacramento District, the Central Valley Flood Protection Board and the Marysville Levee District.

“Strengthening this levee is critical for Yuba County’s continued economic recovery, for future investments and for our community’s social well-being,” said Roger Abe, chairman of the Yuba County Water Agency. “We’re fortunate to have an excellent partnership on this project with the Corps, Department of Water Resources, Central Valley Flood Protection Board and the City of Marysville.”

Deep-soil-mixed cutoff walls, the primary focus of the project, are made of a controlled mixture of native soil, cement and bentonite clay, and create a vertical barrier to seepage in existing earthen levees. This past year’s construction installed cutoff walls in the stretch between Jack Slough Road and Marysville High School.

“This segment was chosen as our first part of the Marysville project because it was the nearest to shovel-ready when stimulus funds were first offered,” said Mark Ellis, project manager with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District. “This is a big step forward in reducing flood risk for the community.”

Ground was broken on the first phase in September 2010 after Raito Inc. of San Leandro was awarded the contract.

Phase one was completed at a cost of $17 million, with additional funding contributed by state and local partners. Upon completion, Marysville’s levee system will meet the state-mandated 1-in-200 annual chance of flooding for urban areas, making it one of the lowest at-risk cities in California’s Central Valley.

With adequate funding, the four-phase, $100-million Marysville project is slated to be completed in 2016 and will reduce flood risk for this historic town of 12,000 residents on the Yuba and Feather rivers.

The Corps is working to next award a contract for a western stretch of the ring levee west of Highway 70 at Binney Junction by the end of this year, said Ellis. Design work also continues on levee sections near the Fifth Street Bridge.

Contact
Robert Kidd
916-557-5100
robert.d.kidd@usace.army.mil

Release no. 13-039