Dredging, relief walls among projects funded via stimulus
Published 12:00 am Sunday, July 5, 2009
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has apportioned Congress-approved stimulus spending among several local projects intended to reduce flood damage, improve environmental habitats and maintain navigable conditions on waterways, according to a release from the Corps’ Vicksburg District.
Online
All Corps projects funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: www.usace.army.mil/recovery
The allocations include:
• $535,000 for dredging at the Vicksburg Harbor intended to provide for “smoother traffic” at the facility.
• $423,000 for dredging at Lake Providence Harbor.
• $80,000 for dredging at the Madison Parish Port.
• $55,000 for dredging at the mouth of the Yazoo River near Vicksburg.
• $1,884,000 for construction of dikes and chevrons designed to keep the Mississippi River’s shipping channel unobstructed at Delta Point/False Point, La., located across from Issaquena County.
• $4,300,000 for three relief wells, structures that help relieve flood conditions by providing alternative outlets for high waters. One of the wells will be located near Mayersville in Issaquena County.
• $1,000,000 for surfacing levees with gravel to ease access to the levees during flood-fighting and inspection trips. The gravel work will start at the Little Sunflower Diversion Canal, north of the Yazoo River in Warren County, and extend northeast into Sharkey County.
• $240,000 to repair stoplogs in water-control structures at Muddy Bayou, near Eagle Lake in Warren County. Stoplogs are wooden devices that can slow the flow of water through flood control mechanisms to accommodate maintenance work.
• $175,000 for standardization of electrical control panels at Delta National Forest pumping stations that facilitate the deliberate flooding of wetland areas to accommodate waterfowl.
• $50,000 for the Delta National Forest’s Greentree Reservoir pumps, which help flood wetland areas for waterfowl.
In all, the Vicksburg District received $220 million of the $4.6 billion doled out to the Corps under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama on Feb. 17.
The District then divided that money between a host of projects, showing preference to work that could be completed quickly and “result in high, immediate employment,” according to a news release.
A full list of Corps projects funded under the stimulus act can be found at www.usace.army.mil/recovery.
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Contact Ben Bryant at bbryant@vicksburgpost.com