City’s flood-protection plan remains flexible, so amphitheater, casino, other projects fit

Dave Elgin, the city's public works director and city engineer, says the city's preferred flood-protection plan remains a guiding light for the city four and a half years after the City Council adopted the plan.

The council put the plan in place in the first months after the city's June 2008 flood at some expense and with the help of consultants, the Army Corps of Engineers, city officials and public input.

The plan calls for a system of about eight miles of levees, permanent flood walls and removable flood walls on both sides of the Cedar River.

A part of the plan - the overall plan has an estimated, if aging, price tag of $375 million - is the Corps-approved piece that calls for the federal government to help fund $104 million worth of flood protection on the east side of the river, from the Quaker plant just above downtown to the Cargill plant below downtown.

The council has supported the Corps plan as a way to obtain some federally funded protection while it hunts for state and local funds to put the city's entire preferred plan in place.

The Corps' plan already has obtained some federal funds for the $12.5 million design and engineering phase, which is underway but not fully funded by Congress. The city has paid its share of the phase - $3.1 million - which has helped keep the preconstruction work going.

The Corps construction plan is awaiting congressional authorization and funding. In mid-May, the Senate approved by a wide, bipartisan margin the Water Resources Development Act of 2013, known as WRDA. Flood-protection projects typically are funded with WRDA legislation, the last of which came in 2007. It's unclear if the House will pass the bill, if either the House or Senate will fund it, or to what degree they will fund it.

Elgin notes that the city's preferred plan approved in 2008 is largely intact, even if it is not written in stone. It was never intended to be, he adds.

For instance, the city tweaked the proposed west-side alignment in the preferred plan to accommodate the city's new riverfront amphitheater, which incorporates a flood-protection levee built to Corps standards. That would allow it to become part of the city's west-side flood-protection system.

The preferred plan had called for the levee at that spot to be on the west-side of First Street SW, but now it is on the east or river side of First Street SW. It had to be there, too, because of the council's decision to build flood protection around the historical Louis Sullivan-designed bank at First Street and Third Avenue SW north of the amphitheater.

This change in the preferred plan will make the plan cost less, Elgin notes, because the city was able to use funding for the amphitheater, which will be part of the flood-protection system.

At the same time, the city may realize some cost savings because Alliant Energy has built a new substation next to the former Sinclair meatpacking site after elevating the spot above the level of the 2008 flood. A levee won't be needed now to protect it.

The city's preferred protection plan and the Corps' plan, he says, are intended to provide flexibility.

Elgin says both are able to incorporate two development proposals now in front of the City Council. One is the casino project in the 100 block of First Street SW, and the other is a new multistory office building and corporate headquarters for CRST Inc. in the 200 block of First Street SE. Those projects call for parking on the lower level or levels, which Elgin says will be designed to incorporate flood walls into the parking structure.

“The council has taken the position that they are willing to modify the (flood-protection) plan when we get funding to build a component consistent with the plan,” Elgin says.

He says the council is open to change the plan if it can save money, but not just because someone wants to change it.

The overall price tag for the preferred plan and the Corps' piece of it will be less than it would have been, too, because Quaker Co. already has built its own flood-protection system to protect its plant to a certain level of flooding. The city's plan and the Corps' plan call for elevating the new flood wall at Quaker, but the substructure already is in place to allow the additional height, Elgin says.

What Quaker has invested, he adds, will count as part of the required local matching funds for the Corps' project, which will save the city several million dollars.

In addition, Elgin says the Corps' plan initially called for the east-side alignment to run through the African American Museum of Iowa at 12th Avenue SE, but the Corps now believes it can keep the museum in place and build a flood wall between it and the Cedar River.

“To sum it up, we have a plan, and it had a lot of public feedback at the time,” Elgin says. “… It's always better to proceed with a plan and modify it than to proceed without a plan and hope you get it right when you're all done.

“… The plan is working to the benefit of the citizens. We still have the goal of getting the system built, and built so it's reliable and at the least cost.”