Cedar Rapids unveils final flood control plan

CEDAR RAPIDS - Now we know.

After nearly seven years of work and a last nine months of refinement, the city has finalized its flood control system master plan that now could come with a final price tag of $600 million when finished in the next 10 to 20 years.

The 6.5 miles of levees, flood walls and removable flood walls that the city will build already is expected to cost 5 percent more than had been expected when a $570 million price tag had been affixed to the project.

Among other revelations that emerged Tuesday is that the couple dozen or so homeowners still in the way of the coming flood control system, many of whom live close to Ellis Park, can stay put for perhaps a decade or more until it is time to build near them. But they'll have to agree to a buyout and move eventually, according to the master plan.

Rob Davis, the city's flood control project manager, Tuesday presented the final version of the city's master plan to the City Council's Flood Control System Committee, which approved the plan and sent it on to the council for its endorsement on June 23.

An open house is slated for July 9 at the Cedar Rapids Public Library.

The plan's implementation schedule breaks the project into eight segments with work moving back and forth to both sides of the river.

Work on the first two segments will take place in years one through five of the plan and will occur in New Bohemia and at the former Sinclair site on the east side of the river and at Czech Village across the river on the west side of the river.

Davis said both areas are low-lying, and he noted that both, and particularly New Bohemia, was threatened by floodwater as recently as 2014.

Building there, he said, will protect both areas to the 100-year flood level even as the rest of the flood control system is yet to be built.

Work is slated in the second five-year period of the plan in the industrial area north of downtown to take flood protection east on the north side of the Quaker Co. plant to tie into Interstate 380 and protect the Cargill plant there.

In years five through 10, work also is slated for Kingston Village, while construction in downtown and at the Cargill plant south of downtown and the Penford plant across from downtown will come after the 10-year point.

Work on raising Edgewood Road NW as it approaches the river will take place later.

The implementation sequence is designed to be flexible should the city secure additional grants or should the city choose to accommodate development projects, Davis said.

He said the downtown is pretty well protected now from less-than-extreme flooding.

He said the city will continue to lean on its emergency flood plan and the use of stopgap barriers if temporary flood protection is needed while the permanent system is being built.

The system will feature earthen levees, flood walls, removable flood walls and a combination of flood walls to protect to the 100-year flood level with removable walls on top of them.

One goal of the plan is to maximize the use of removable walls to keep as much of the river open to the public as possible, Davis said.

In fact, the city has started building the system. The McGrath Amphitheatre doubles as a flood levee, and a section of flood wall is in place at the construction site of the new CRST building downtown. Work on raising the flood wall at the Quaker Co. plant begins in late summer.

The city has secured $264 million from the state Flood Mitigation Board and already has secured and spent about $120 million in federal funds to buy out some 1,300 flood-damaged properties. The city also hopes to secure about $75 million in federal funding through the Army Corps of Engineers.

Council member Ann Poe, the committee chairwoman, Tuesday talked about the flood control project in historic terms, calling it the largest public construction project ever in the city.

'It is one of the most important decisions we will face because we will live with it for generations to come,” she said. 'I want to do it right.”

Council member Justin Shields, a committee member, said the construction of the flood control system is apt to outlive him.

'It's necessary to protect billions of dollars in property,” Shields said. 'It's a huge investment. … But it needs to be done.”

Poe, who grew up on Ellis Boulevard NW near Ellis Park and is sympathetic to 15 or so homeowners along the river who have not wanted to leave, asked Davis to make sure the city keeps them informed and works closely with them so they can stay in their homes as long as possible.

Shields told Poe that she was not alone among council members who wanted to work with the residents near Ellis Park to let them stay as long as possible.

'But there will be a day,” Shields said. 'We have to get this thing built.”

The final rendition of the master plan, which consultants HR Green and Stanley Consultants have helped put together, is not so different from the conceptual plan first approved by the City Council in late 2008 after months of work and some millions of dollars of expense with the help of consultants, the Army Corps of Engineers and plenty of public input.

The city added more specifics to the plan in 2013 as it sought and secured $264 million in funding over 20 years for flood control from the then-new Iowa Flood Mitigation Board.

Then last fall, the city began to hold a series of public events to get fresh input about the plan.

Davis emphasized that the plan is a living document designed to change as the system is built. For instance, the city expects additional work and additional public input before it adds a chapter on the aesthetics of the system to the master plan, he said.