USA: Marysville Ring Levee Project Moves Forward

After two full years of construction, phase one of the Marysville Ring Levee Project has drawn to a close with 4,600 linear feet of deep-soil-mixed cutoff wall installed – the first milestone in a four-phase project to reduce Marysville’s flood risk.

“All major structural improvements for this stretch of levee are complete,” said Mark Ellis, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District project manager.

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

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.

Ground was broken on the $10.8 million first phase in September 2010 after Raito Inc. of San Leandro was awarded the contract. Funding was provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

The state of California appropriated $17 million toward the project as part of their commitment to upgrade the state’s levee systems. 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 award a contract for a southwestern stretch of the ring levee east of Highway 70 next year, said Ellis. Design work also continues on levee sections near the Fifth Street Bridge and Binney Junction.

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Press Release, December 11, 2012; Image: usace