Summing it up: City's $375 million flood plan

CEDAR RAPIDS - If you don't know what the $375 million preferred plan is, you will in the next three months.

Cedar Rapids officials will be explaining the plan - to provide an attractive flood-protection system for both sides of the Cedar River - as voters prepare for a May 3 referendum on extending the 1 percent local-option sales tax for 20 years. That money would be used to help pay the plan's bill.

Mayor Ron Corbett's hope is that the voters' commitment to use local funds for flood protection will persuade the federal and state governments to share in the cost of levees, permanent flood walls, removable flood walls, bridge gates and pumping stations - all meant to protect the city against a repeat of the June 2008 flood.

Dave Elgin, the city's public works director and city engineer, emphasizes that the $375 million figure did not fall from the sky, isn't padded and is an accurate cost estimate today. It is also likely to move. Upward.

On average, construction costs rose 4 percent a year between 2000 and 2008. They rose 4 percent from 2008 to 2009 because of federal stimulus spending, Elgin said.

At 4 percent a year, the price tag would climb $15 million a year. Elgin said the project likely will take at least five years.

Corbett explains how the removable flood wall system could work

Apples to oranges comparison

Complicating the city's effort to explain the figure is the difference between it and a cost estimate from the Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps has approved building a piece of the city's preferred plan on the east side of the river for $104 million, up $5 million from just two months ago.

Elgin said the Corps' cost estimate and the city's cost estimate are in line with one another, even if the numbers are far apart.

The Corps' recommended plan is 2.8 miles in length, from the Quaker Oats plant just north of downtown to the Cargill plant south of downtown.

The city's preferred plan is 7.74 miles in length - 4.74 on the river's east side and three miles on the west side - or 2.7 times longer than the Corps' plan.

On the east side, the city's plan extends the Corps' plan and protects an area above the Quaker plant that includes the Pillsbury plant, an Alliant operations shop, a water-treatment plant building, railroad yards, Cedar Lake and low-lying areas near Coe College.

The city's plan also calls for using more expensive removable flood walls through downtown and at Czech Village, which keeps the river open for viewing except during a flood.

The Corps' plan depends on permanent flood walls in those areas.

The city estimates the average cost of earthen levees, which comprise about 53 percent of the proposed flood-protection system, as $1,941 per linear foot; permanent flood walls, $3,286 a linear foot; and removable flood walls, $5,730 a linear foot.

One of the components of the city cost estimate is $52.6 million for the purchase of real estate. Elgin said his staff did a fresh analysis of that number, in light of the current buyout program of some 1,300 properties for about $170 million using federal and state disaster-recovery dollars. The $52.6 million estimate remains a good one, he said.

The city found that 140 to 150 west-side properties, residential and commercial, will not have been bought out after the program ends and will remain in the construction zone or between the river and the zone. It will cost an estimated $30 million to purchase those properties, complete the legal and title work, and demolish the structures.

Additionally, the Corps estimates it will spend $13.9 million to purchase real estate and easements on the east side of the river. Elgin said another $7 million or so will be needed for contingency uses related to property purchases, such as hazardous-waste cleanup.

Some costs may come down

Elgin acknowledges that some costs factored into the $375 million total are on the move in the project cost's favor.

For instance, a first piece of the flood-protection system already is being built to protect the Quaker Oats plant. Quaker is investing at least a million dollars in the project. The city is finalizing an agreement with the state to use $9 million in federal Community Development Block Grants for the project.

Also, the city has secured federal, state and private funds, in addition to city funds, to build an outdoor riverfront amphitheater on the west bank of the river. About $1 million of that project will consist of an earthen levee, a piece of the proposed flood-protection system.

Thirdly, the preferred plan also might realize some savings at Czech Village, as the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library moves its building away from the river to a higher site. The move might allow the city to use less removable flood wall and more levee near the site, saving some money.

Still, Elgin said, there are likely to be hundreds of additional costs, and as many subtractions, as the Army Corps of Engineers works in the next two years to complete the design of the project. As time marches on, so, too, will the cost of the total project as inflation is factored in. So it makes no sense for the city to fiddle with the current estimated cost of the project, Elgin said.

“When it becomes a moving target, all we do is convince the public that we don't know what we're talking about,” he said.

Not factored in is an option for removable walls to protect the buildings on May's Island, which could add at least $10 million to costs.

Preferred but not padded

Elgin and Jason Hellendrung, lead consultant in the development of the city's preferred flood-protection plan, emphasize that the plan came about after a trio of public forums and input from city staff, the City Council, the Corps and other consultants.

Hellendrung, a principal at Sasaki Associates Inc. in Watertown, Mass., said public input led to three options and then the final plan.

“The purpose of the preferred plan was that it wasn't just flood structures that cut off the community from the river,” Hellendrung said. “That's what we heard from the community. They wanted to maintain that connection.”

So the plan includes a floodable amphitheater, a river trail system and a greenway along the river with wetlands, native grasses and ball fields, while keeping some parts of established neighborhoods intact, he said.

Elgin makes it clear, however, that the $375 million price tag includes no spending for parks, ball fields, office buildings, trails or any amenity. The city, he said, will seek other grants and will use regular city funds for some of that.

“This is not going to pay for ball fields,” he said. “That has nothing to do with flood mitigation. That's not part of this. Here's what's included: levees, flood walls, removable flood walls, roadway and bridge gates, pump stations, discharge lines.”

Elgin said Iowa's congressional delegation, which is helping secure funding for at least the Corps' $104 million piece of the plan, is asking him the same question: “Do we have fluff in here?”

“There is nothing buried in here where we're asking for a chunk of change to do anything but build a flood mitigation system,” Elgin said, “and that's not athletic fields, and that's not office buildings.”

Yes, Elgin said, the city could build a no-frills system with levees and basic Corps of Engineers' flood walls. Then he holds up a photo of one community with those flood walls in place for about 10 years. They are covered with graffiti.

Removable flood walls don't provide such an opportunity, he said.

“It's clear from the feedback we got from the public that they want something this city as a quality standard can live with for the next 100 years,” Elgin said. “It's not going to be (graffiti-laden walls), and it's not going to be a Cadillac. It's going to be something consistent with the quality standards we want to have for this community.”

A ‘flood corps' of 100-150 volunteers needed to make system work

Removable flood walls could protect May's Island