Northwest Flood Control Project delayed

The Northwest Flood Control Project has been delayed two more years.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is starting an explosives remediation project at the former Cornhusker Army Ammunition Plant site that will shut down construction of water detention cells meant to prevent flooding in northwest Grand Island.

“They (the corps) showed up at a meeting (Wednesday) and said they need a 6,000-foot blast zone from their 17-acre project,” said Milt Moravek, projects director at the Central Platte Natural Resources District. “There can be no human activity in that area.” The 17-acre site area lies just north of Capital Avenue and east of Schauppsville Road. Landmines had been discovered in the area in the past, resulting in the area being fenced off from the rest of the plant.

Remediation work is to begin March 29 and last through this summer and next summer, Moravek said.

It means Hooker Brothers will have to stop its current excavation work on one new water detention cell, and that two other cells — one planned this summer and one next spring — will be delayed.

“We have an existing contract with Hooker Brothers ? and they’re two-thirds done, with three months of work left,” Moravek said of the cell under construction.

“These cells will have to be put on hold for at least two years,” he said.

The project is already behind schedule by one year due to a previous shortfall in state funding.

“The plans were to have final completion six to seven years from now; now it will be nine to 10 years from now,” Moravek said.

It means many homes in the northwest area will remain in the floodplain, will continue to need flood insurance and won’t have protection from flooding, Moravek said.

But it also means the local and state governments participating in the project will have a delayed cost — including the city of Grand Island.

“Budgetwise, it’s good — it gives us a reprieve,” said Grand Island Public Works Director Steve Riehle. “But it’s too bad for the people hoping for the protection.”

The city had budgeted about $400,000 a year for 10 years to pay its share of the project. When the first couple of years of the project went more slowly then expected, the city’s cost was less than the $400,000. this year and next year, as the construction picked up pace, the city’s share was to be $725,000.

That city cost will likely drop to about $100,000 or less for the coming year, Moravek said, as only engineering design work will be done on dry cells and channels planned in the rural area west of Grand Island.

Grand Island City Administrator Jeff Pederson said the news is in fact a two-sided coin.

The lower immediate cost may help the city in what’s estimated to be a $3 million budget gap in the coming year, but Pederson said the project is needed overall to protect homes and businesses in Grand Island.

“This was a priority in our capital projects fund,” he said.

“It’s an unusual set of circumstances, but it’s understandable,” Pederson said.

The Army had begun cleaning up the area, which includes what’s called the burning grounds, in 2000 using a remote-control Gradall and other automated equipment. Unexploded ordnance, bombs that didn’t meet specifications and scrap material and equipment with explosive residue, such as mops and buckets, were disposed of at the site until the World War II era-ordnance plant ceased operations in 1973.

The Army shifted away from that cleanup when county officials expressed a desire to have the most amount of land cleaned at the least amount of cost in order to have as much plant land as possible returned to the county tax rolls.

The Army then focused on cleaning up the five former bomb load lines and selling that more than 1,000 acres of land.

Much debate ensued about what depth to clean to at the 17-acre site when cleanup there resumed.

Army officials announced in March 2009 that the cleanup would resume in the summer of 2009 at a cost of $15.5 million and clean to a depth of eight feet below ground.

The project is going forward now because of funding.

“They have the money now and won’t have it later on,” Moravek said. “I hope there’s no flood in the meantime.”

Northwest Flood Control Project delayed

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