Flood likely will cost UI less than expected

IOWA CITY - Save for a few minor landscape repairs, the University of Iowa has finished cleaning up from this summer's flooding - just in time for students' arrival this week.

And though the total cost of this year's flood protection and removal efforts is not final, officials expect it will come in around $2 million - much lower than the $4 million estimate officials projected in July.

Workers were able to keep costs low through efficiencies acquired by experience, according to UI director of planning and construction Rod Lehnertz.

'The university learned a lot, not only from what occurred in 2008, but also from the flood threat of 2013,” Lehnertz said in an email to The Gazette. He was referencing the 2008 flooding that caused $717 million in damage to the university and devastated several essential buildings, including Hancher Auditorium, the Iowa Memorial Union, Mayflower Residence Hall and the Art Building.

'The assembly and then removal of the temporary flood protection measures went very well and was done with no interruptions to UI business,” he said.

The university expects it will get help covering this summer's costs from the Federal Emergency Management Agency after the state recently received disaster declarations, Lehnertz said.

Earlier this summer, with the Iowa River outside its banks and water level forecasts uncertain, UI officials were preparing to spend as much as $4 million to protect the campus. That included putting up and taking down HESCO barriers near Mayflower Residence Hall, the IMU, the Iowa Advanced Technology Laboratories, and the east and west river banks.

It also included sandbagging near the water and power plants, clearing construction materials by the IMU, plugging and pumping storm sewers, and implementing precautions in steam system tunnels.

When similar flooding threatened the campus last year, the university erected seven linear miles of HESCO barriers and spent $3.3 million in flood mitigation and cleanup. This summer's efforts were quicker and more efficient, even with larger flood mitigation projects tied to 2008 damage still in progress, university officials said.

'This was an important summer for the UI,” Lehnertz said. 'The 2014 flood threat occurred during a time when the sites along the Iowa River were exposed because of the in-progress (2008) flood work.”

UI crews and contractors were quick to protect those vulnerable sites, and even though construction was temporarily suspended or slowed, the sites stayed dry. Lehnertz said the goal is to complete permanent flood recovery and replacement projects by 2016 and make the university a leader in campus flood mitigation and protection.

'Our campus will not only be transformed, but (it) will be far better protected than ever before,” he said.

Despite this summer's events and ongoing flood-related construction, campus will be ready when students move in Wednesday and Thursday and start classes Aug. 25, according to Lehnertz.

Crews are reopening two pedestrian bridges that had closed. The Hancher Bridge opened Wednesday, and the IMU Bridge was set to be reopened Friday. Unfinished landscape repairs will be completed during the first half of the fall semester, Lehnertz said.