The City of Topeka is hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony for the Kansas River Levee improvements on Tuesday, May 18th. The Kansas River Levee improvements are part of the Topeka flood risk mitigation project. This is a $30 million project funded between the Kansas City District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the City of Topeka.
“The Kansas River Levee improvement project is a critical step to create stability at the flood wall during significant events such as flooding and heavy rainfall,” said Braxton Copley, Interim Director of Utilities. “This project will ensure that the floodplain is safer for our community with the installation of the buttresses and relief wells.”
“This is one of many projects at that the City of Topeka has completed at the Kansas River this year. I am proud of the Utilities Department for all of their hard work with the levee project to create a safer environment for our community,” said City Manager Brent Trout.
These improvements were to address vulnerabilities such as underseepage and flood wall stability that the Corps identified through inspection of the Topeka levee units. The improvements are designed to prevent critical failure of the levees experienced in other communities across the country in recent years during flood events caused by hurricanes and significant rain events. The improvements included the addition of relief wells and underseepage berms along with construction of approximately 230 concrete buttresses at the flood wall.