Long-awaited repairs on the Santa Maria River Levee could begin as early as this summer, project engineers announced on April 17, during a meeting along the Santa Maria riverbed.
Col. Tom Magness of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers informed a group of local officials—including U.S. Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) and Santa Maria Mayor Larry Lavagnino—that the first stage of construction is expected to begin in late summer or early fall.
Capps and the other officials were instrumental in securing approximately $6.7 million for the first phase, which will repair a section of the levee from Suey Crossing Bridge to Highway 101. Funding for the rest of the project, officials said, will hopefully come from President Barack Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
“What we built in 1962 isn’t adequate in 2009, so we’re going to fix it,” Magness, the Corps’ Los Angeles District commander, said in a recent press release.
Past analysis of the levee system has determined it could not withstand a 100-year storm. The Corps plans to strengthen an approximate 6.5-mile section of the existing levee, and will award a construction contract to begin the work this summer.
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This article appears in Apr 23-30, 2009.