The Iowa Advanced Technology Laboratories on the campus of the University of Iowa in Iowa City. (Gazette file photo)

About $8 million has been obligated from the federal government to the University of Iowa for the construction of a removable flood wall around the Iowa Advanced Technology Laboratories, officials announced Tuesday.

It is the official obligation of money UI officials expected to receive for the project, university spokesman Tom Moore said.

The funding is for the preferred flood mitigation strategy of invisible walls, like those installed at Art Building West, and interior wells to release hydrostatic pressure on the building during a flooding event, Moore said. The flood wall being created will be supported by a dewatering system that prevents water from pooling behind the constructed flood wall.

The project has been in design and will be bid in the coming months, along with the remainder of the Iowa Advanced Technology Laboratories recovery work, Moore said. The building was one of many UI structures damaged in the June 2008 flood.

Construction documents are expected to be complete in August, with a bid period that will take all of September, so officials expect to award a construction contract next October, Moore said.  The current schedule has construction slated for completion in late 2014.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Congressman Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, on Tuesday announced the award of just more than $7.9 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the UI project.