The next phase of construction on the Marysville Ring Levee will remain on schedule with the help of a $20,520 grant from Yuba Water Agency to the Marysville Levee Commission.
The funding will be used by the commission to hire MHM, a local engineering and surveying firm, to design a replacement pipe that runs through a portion of levee at one of the pump stations located near Highway 70 at the south side of Marysville.
The project is being built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, with the Marysville Levee Commission as the local sponsor. The Corps asked the levee commission to design the replacement pipe, so the project will be ready to go out to bid this summer, for construction starting in 2020.
“This is an example of the partnerships it takes to make a project of this magnitude happen,” said Curt Aikens, Yuba Water Agency general manager. “There’s still a lot of work to be done before this project is complete in 2023, and it takes all of us doing our part to get us to the finish line.”
“The ring levee project is crucial to reducing the risk of flooding for the city and Yuba County residents,” said Yuba Water Agency Director Mike Leahy. “As we invest in making our community a better place to live, public safety has to be our number one priority.”
This design will also support the criteria necessary for the City of Marysville to obtain certification from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state of California.
FEMA’s certification would document that the levees meet or exceed the requirements for 100-year levees, meaning there is a 1-in-100 chance in any given year that a storm could come along that is larger than those levees were designed for. California has a stricter standard for urban levees and requires 200-year certification, meaning a 1-in-200 chance of overtopping in any given year.
“Once the entire Marysville Ring Levee project is complete, it is expected that it will provide Marysville with greater than 200-year level of protection,” said Aikens. “That would place the city among the best protected urban areas at risk of flooding in California’s Central Valley.”
MHM will begin designing the replacement pipe immediately to ensure the project stays on schedule.
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