CREWS WORKING TO REPAIR BREACH

PERRYVILLE - Construction of a temporary rock levee to protect property and residents in the Bois Brule Levee District is 25-30 percent complete, according to the project manager with the Corps of Engineers.

The temporary levee will provide flood protection from the Mississippi River while emergency repairs are made to the district's flood-damaged earthen levee in eastern Perry County.

Record flooding on the Mississippi River last summer caused a 1,500 foot section of the earthen Bois Bule Levee to collapse on July 25, flooding about 27,000 acres of farmland and crops. The floodwater also destroyed or seriously damaged farm homes and outbuildings, and caused major damage to two large industries located along Highway 51, near McBride, which also sustained severe flood damage.

Since the repair work began Oct. 30, a fleet of 55-70 trucks working from sun-up to sun-down has hauled over 85,000 tons of rock from the Perry County Stone Co. to the site of the new levee. The levee is located near the Mississippi River, about five miles southeast of Menfro, off Perry County Route C.

When the first phase of the project is completed at the end of December, over 300,000 tons of rock will have been used to build a 7,100-foot rock levee around the breached section of earthen levee, said Bill Gidcomb, project manager, for the Corps of Engineers.

"The rock levee will be built to an elevation of 375 feet above sea level, or about 40 feet on the Chester gauge. This will protect the district up to a 10-year flood. When the new section of earthen levee is completed next year, it will provide the same level of flood protection as the rest of the levee; up to a 50 year flood, or a flood that normally only occurs every 50 years," said Gidcomb. The 1993 flood that breached the Bois Brule levee was a 100 year flood.

In early October, plans were announced for a nearly $6 million emergency construction project to build a temporary rock levee that would protect the interior of the levee district while a permanent earthen levee is under construction to replace the 1,000 feet of levee destroyed by the floodwater.

Gidcomb said the new section of earthen levee will set back about 2,000 feet from the original levee.

The levee district is providing easements for the new section of levee and other in-kind services. About 140 acres of farmland will be sacrificed in order to build the new section.

"Weather permitting, we hope to begin work on the earthen levee in about a week to ten days. The clay and earth for the new section of the earthen levee will come from the existing earthen levee on each side of the breech," Gidcomb said.

Work on the rock levee started last month when earthmovers carved out the 7,100-foot-long "footprint," or base, on which the levee will be built. The rock levee will eventually become a protective berm on the west side of the new section of earthen levee. Gidcomb said the base of rock levee has been completed, and actual construction of the levee is now underway.

"All of the sand and sediment that was removed for the base of the rock levee was used to fill in the western end of the scour hole that was created when the levee collapsed," Gidcomb explained.

The scour hole, or blue hole, is located immediately west of the breached section of levee, and is 3,500 long, 1,500 feet wide and up to 50 feet deep in the center.

In late December, a dredge owned by T.L. James, Inc., of New Orleans, will begin pumping sand and sediment from the Mississippi River to fill in the remainder of the scour hole.

General contractor for the levee work is Dumey Excavating of Oran.

In announcing funding for the project last month, U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson said failure to repair the federal levee would result in an economic loss to Perry County of around $14 million in agriculture products. The figure does not include losses sustained by Gilster-Mary Lee, Sabreliner, and other industries affected by the levee failure and subsequent flooding.