Levee Repair Work Taking Place in Twin Cities

Last year around this time, the twin cities was under water. Heavy rain in October caused the Ouachita River to rise more than 7 feet above flood stage.  When the rain stopped and the  river receded, it took chunks of the levee right along with it.  Now, months later, the Army Corp of Engineers has gotten the right away to come in and patch it up.

Jacob Brister is the Project Manager for the Army Corps of Engineers and he said, "Congress authorizes us to do emergency rehabilitation levee work which means we have the authority and funding, 100%  federal to go in and repair the levee."

From the looks of it, the Corps has a lot of work cut out for them.  They'll be repairing 3 spots along the river.   The area off of Cherry Street by Foresythe Park.  They'll move to the area opposite Lazarre Park in Monroe to patch up erosion there and then to an area in West Monroe.  You can see the erosion if you cross the Lea Joyner bridge heading into West Monroe.  Brister says about 400 feet of the bank has eroded in different spots all the way to the flood wall.

Brister said, "We're going in, we've cleared off the bank, you can see some rocks we're gonna go in and put some dikes down that will help sure up the levee and put dirt in to keep it surd up."   

That process will take place at all three sites for the next three weeks.