The Record of Decision was signed on June 18, 2025.

The American River Common Features Final SEIS/SEIR is now available.
The Final SEIS/SEIR Appendices are available for download HERE.
For more details click on the American River Common Features tab below under Current Project Activities.

The 30-day waiting period began May 12, 2025, and ends June 11, 2025.

Questions can be directed to: publiccommentarcf16@water.ca.gov and  ARCF_SEIS@usace.army.mil 

Objective: This water-side bank protection repair project is located within the City of Sacramento, California. This particular reach of Sacramento River bank has been identified as a critical erosion risk and will be brought up to modern bank protection standards.

Duration:  Construction is slated to start in spring 2023 and will continue through October 2024. The in-water construction during this two year period is scheduled to occur between July 1 to October 31. Site preparation work in advance of construction should be conducted between November 2022-February 2023 and November 2023-Febraury 2024.

Work Areas: This repair site is located on the east side of the Sacramento River and will cover approximately 3.4 miles. Work will be executed from tug and barge on waterside of levee, and may affect boating traffic.

Additional News/Notes: 

Sacramento River Erosion Contract 2 Virtual Public Meeting
April 26, 2022  
This virtual public meeting discussed the Draft Supplemental Environmental Assessment/Environmental Impact Report. Project leaders gave a presentation discussing the proposed work, environmental impacts, and answer questions related to the project. 

Public Meeting Presentation Slides

Sacramento River Contract 2 Final SEA - December 2022
Final SEA Report
Final SEA Appendices
Signed FONSI

Sacramento River Contract 2 Draft SEA/SEIR - April 2022
Draft SEA/SEIR Report
Draft SEA Appendices
Draft SEIR Appendices
Draft FONSI

Objective: Design approximately 2.6 miles of levee improvements along the Sacramento River East Levee.

Actions: Project will require degrading the levee to achieve a working platform up to 50 feet wide in order to install seepage cutoff walls up in the identified project areas.

Duration:  April 2023 to December 2023

Objective: This water-side bank protection repair project is located within the Little Pocket neighborhood in the City of Sacramento, California. This reach of Sacramento River bank has been identified as an erosion risk and will be brought up to modern bank protection standards.

Duration: Construction activities are slated to begin in Spring 2024 and continue through October 2024, with in-water construction scheduled to occur between July 1 to October 31. Site preparation work in advance of construction should be conducted between November 2023-February 2024.

Work Areas: This repair site is located on the east side of the Sacramento River and will cover approximately 1,700 feet. Work will be executed from tug and barge on waterside of levee, and may affect boating traffic.

Additional News/Notes: 
Final SEA Report & Appendices
Final SEIR/SEA
Signed FONSI
Draft SEA/SEIR Report Notice of Availability 
Draft SEA/SEIR Report
Sacramento River Erosion C4 Information and FAQs

American River Common Features (ARCF) 2016 Draft SEIS-SEIR
January 16, 2024

This public meeting explained the AMERICAN RIVER COMMON FEATURES 2016 Flood Risk Management Project, Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement / Subsequent Environmental Impact Report

Presentation Slides

Video Link

American River Common Features (ARCF) 2016 Draft SEIS-SEIR
January 10, 2024;

This public meeting explained the AMERICAN RIVER COMMON FEATURES 2016 Flood Risk Management Project,  Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement / Subsequent Environmental Impact Report

Presentation Slides

Video Link

The public meeting explained the upcoming  2023 work on seepage/stability Contact 4 and the erosion Contract 2. 

Presentation

Video Link

This meeting covered the American River Common Features 2016 Project Overview, the Sacramento River Erosion Contract 4 Draft Supplemental Environmental Assessment and Supplemental Environmental Impact Report, and how you can submit official comments on the project.
 

Presentation Slides

Video

November 2, 2022 and November 30, 2022
USACE is preparing to draft a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement/Subsequent Environmental Impact Review (SEIS/SEIR) to analyze changes made during final preliminary design of multiple contract actions within the American River Common Features (ARCF) project that could result in potentially significant environmental effects. This supplemental document will centralize where the public and agencies can look for the most current project information and will bring environmental considerations up to date. The SEIS/SEIR will focus on new or different features of project designs that have evolved since the original 2016 ARCF General Reevaluation Report (GRR) Final Environmental Impact Statement/Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIS/FEIR) was completed, while analyzing the potential environmental impacts of these changes. 

The Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare the draft SEIS/SEIR can be found HERE.  
The NOI incorrectly states that the public comment period closes on November 31, 2022. A correction was made to accurately reflect the correct public comment period closing date of December 1, 2022. The correction can be found HERE. The public scoping period has been extended to December 31, 2022.

Virtual public meetings were held November 2 and November 30, 2022, to discuss the development of the Draft SEIS/SEIR. Public comments will be accepted until December 31, 2022, and can be submitted to ARCF_SEIS@usace.army.mil.

Virtual Scoping Meeting Presentation Slides (Updated November 30)
Virtual Scoping Meeting Recording

To view previous public engagements, visit our Archive

The 1997 flood event produced significant levee underseepage along the American and Sacramento Rivers in areas that had previously undergone remediation (shallow cutoff walls constructed after the 1986 flood event).  Through extensive geotechnical surveying and analysis, it was found that many portions of the Sacramento area levee system do not meet current seepage and stability criteria. The installation of deeper slurry walls and seepage berms at various locations along the Sacramento River East Levee is necessary to reduce flood risk. These improvements are part of a larger plan to provide flood risk reduction to approximately 500,000 residents, $62 billion in property, and numerous transportation routes in the Sacramento area.

Our flood risk is managed by a series of levees, dams and other measures working together to create a system. Our levee system is only as strong as its weakest link, and now many of California’s levees are being asked to do much more than they were built or designed for. Many Central Valley levees are more than 75 years old and aren’t built to modern engineering standards, yet they need to reduce risk to a much larger population than lived behind them when they were built. Long story short: modernizing the levees is going to be costly, time consuming and sometimes inconvenient but it reduces the risk to lives, property and critical infrastructure, and it will be far cheaper than the cost of a major flood disaster in the region.

2022 construction will occur along a two-mile-stretch of the Sacramento River East Levee in the Big Pocket neighborhood, between Surfside Way at the northern end down to Sump 132 at the Pocket Canal on the southern end. A map of 2022 construction locations is here.  Monthly progress updates will be posted at www.sacleveeupgrades.com and will be sent to our email distribution list throughout the construction season.

Encroachments that must be removed to complete construction will be removed and will not be replaced by the project. A new encroachment permit must be acquired from the Central Valley Flood Protection Board. A document outlining some frequently asked questions has been provided by CVFPB here. 

The majority of the seepage remediation work along the Sacramento River East Levee will involve installation of deep slurry walls. In order to install a slurry wall, the existing levee is degraded by up to half, a 3-foot-wide trench down the center of the levee is excavated as much as 135 feet deep, and filled with a slurry mix that hardens to a specified strength after required curing time.  Then, the upper portion of the levee is rebuilt with competent, engineered soils. In other areas where a slurry wall alone will not sufficiently address seepage concerns, levee seepage or stability berms, which are areas where additional soil is added as weight to ensure that water cannot reach the surface of the ground and create instability, will be constructed.

Our construction season typically runs from April to October; however, some actions are likely to continue through the end of the calendar year. For this year's work, we have to complete approximately 2 miles of levee work in the Big Pocket neighborhood from Surfside Way at the northern end of down to Sump 132 at the Pocket Canal on the southern end. Overall, we expect all of the necessary work along the Sacramento River East Levee to be complete in 2024. 

Encroachments that must be removed to complete construction will be removed, and are not being replaced by the project. A new encroachment permit must be submitted through the Central Valley Flood Protection Board. A document outlining some frequently asked questions has been provided by CVFPB here.    

For the safety of all residents and the general public, access to the work areas will be restricted during working and non-working hours. Access to the levee at locations not within our active construction area is not impacted by our project. 

There will be temporary impacts to recreation facilities. Due to the nature of the work, which includes degrading the existing levee, the bike path at some locations may be closed. Zacharias Park will be closed to facilitate construction staging and facilities. 

The Congressionally-authorized plan to reduce the catastrophic flood risk to the American River South Basin of Sacramento includes installation of cutoff walls in the center of the levee to a maximum depth of 134 feet. The USACE construction contract includes specifications requiring its independent contractors to implement measures at each work site to avoid, where possible, or minimize construction impacts, such as noise, vibrations, dust, to the greatest extent possible. 

If you believe there is settlement or vibration effects to your property, please complete the Construction Work Inquiry & Concern Submission form on our project web page at www.sacleveeupgrades.com

This is a major construction effort authorized by Congress and funded with federal, state and local funds to reduce the catastrophic flood risk to the American River South Basin of Sacramento. Improvements require the levee to be lowered by approximately half to construct the cutoff wall to address underseepage and then rebuilt to its authorized height. The USACE construction contract includes specifications requiring its independent contractors to implement best practice measures at each work site to avoid or minimize dirt and dust effects to the greatest extent possible. 

Some examples include requirements to provide a plan for general housekeeping along the haul route, 15 MPH speed limit on levee and access roads to reduce dirt, dust and debris, installation of wind fencing, and use of water and sweeper trucks.  

The majority of the levee improvements are located underground. At the end of construction, the levee will be built to its authorized height and side slope using appropriate soils. The reconstructed levee height and side slopes could differ from the preconstruction levee height along some segments of the levee that may have been affected by long-term settlement or other changes since their initial construction, but the visual appearance of the levee would remain similar to the existing condition. 

USACE, with the concurrence of its non-federal partners, has offered pre- and post-construction residential inspections to properties adjoining the construction area. Those that accepted the offer have been contacted by our independent contractor for coordination of the pre-inspections

The Congressionally authorized plan of improvement to reduce the catastrophic flood risk to the American River South Basin of Sacramento includes installation of cutoff walls in the center of the levee to a maximum depth of 134 feet. The USACE construction contract includes specifications requiring its independent contractors to implement measures at each work site to avoid, where possible, or minimize construction noise and vibration effects to the greatest extent possible.  

If you believe there is settlement or vibration effects to your property, please complete the Construction Work Inquiry & Concern Submission Form on our website at www.sacleveeupgrades.com. 

Since 2019, the USACE and the Project's non-federal sponsors, the Central Valley Flood Protection Board (CVFPB) and Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency (SAFCA), have streamlined processes regarding the Project's response to homeowner concerns.  If you believe there is damage to your property, please complete the Construction Work Inquiry & Concern Submission Form on our website at www.sacleveeupgrades.com to initiate the process towards resolution.

The first action taken by the USACE in response to the submission of a vibration-related "Construction Work Inquiry & Concern Submission Form" is to verify that the USCAE contractor has followed the contract specifications in the performance of its work.  Thereafter, homeowners will either be contacted by the USACE contractor or the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency for next steps.

This is a major construction effort authorized by Congress and funded with federal funds and State bond funding to reduce the catastrophic flood risk to the American River South Basin of Sacramento. Improvements require the levee to be lowered by approximately half to construct the cutoff wall to address underseepage and then rebuilt up to its authorized height along a two-mile stretch. The USACE construction contract includes specifications requiring its independent contractors to implement best practice measures at each work site to avoid or minimize dirt and dust effects to the greatest extent possible.

Some examples in the construction specifications include requirements to provide a plan for general housekeeping along the haul route. Other measures to reduce dirt, dust and debris from the roadways include a maximum speed limit of 15 mph on the levee and access roads, installation of wind fencing, and use of water and sweeper trucks.

Delaying our start time even just an hour to 8 a.m. each day would cost us weeks of productivity over the course of the project. This contract is trying to get a lot of work complete in a short amount of time. While we recognize this creates a long day of construction noise, we cannot afford to lose any time if we’re going to meet our target completion for this year's work.

Construction activities will start and stop for many reasons including construction sequencing, monitoring/testing requirements, and getting approvals for activities as required.  This is typical of all construction projects and does not indicate any kind of problem that could impact schedule or our ability to successfully complete the project.

The deep mix method (DMM) is one of three ways we are installing seepage cutoff walls in the Sacramento River East Levee, the other two being conventional and jet grout cutoff walls. Using DMM, we can inject engineered slurry material up to 135 feet deep to create a wall that will stop seepage from going through or under the levee structure. Conventional cutoff walls are installed using a long-stick excavator that digs out the fill material while slurry is added; however, these machines have a limited reach (80 feet or less) . When deeper cutoff walls are needed, DMM machines with extremely long augers drill through the center of the levee, injecting and mixing slurry material with native soil to create a low-permeability cutoff wall. This process is much slower but allows for consistent application and setting of the materials where other equipment cannot reach.

Click on the subscribe button in the left column to get added to our email distribution list. Our intent is to send out updates monthly to keep you up-to-date on the latest information. You can also visit our project web page here at www.sacleveeupgrades.com , follow our social media accounts on Facebook or Twitter, or contact our public affairs office at spk-pao@usace.army.mil or 916-557-5100.

Contract Type: To Be Determined

Contract Magnitude: $500K-$1M

Proposals Due: Fall 2022

Estimated Contract Award: Fall 2022

Estimated Period of Performance: November 2022 – February 2023

Contract Type: Construction – Levee improvements to include cutoff walls, raises and rebuilds.

Notice: Not Yet Available

Bids Due: This contract is scheduled to be advertised in Fall 2022

Estimated Contract Award: January 2023

Estimated Period of Performance: Construction: April 2023 - December 2023