(Kansas City, Mo.) – Millions of dollars in savings and one step closer to more comprehensive flood control for Kansas City. That’s the good news from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The Corps recently announced the remaining work on the Kansas Citys Levees will be fully federally funded. This means Kansas City, MO and Kansas City, KS won’t have to spend tens of millions of dollars to the meet the previously required 35% local match. Kansas City, MO would have paid close to $30 million. The cost to Kansas City, KS was closer to $90 million.
“This is fantastic news,” said Terry Leeds, KC Water Director. “This federal funding saves millions of dollars in local funding which can be used to support other needed improvements. It puts into motion construction on critical flood protection projects along Kansas City’s levee system which is the third largest urban levee system in the country.”
After the Missouri and Kansas River Flood of 1993, the Corps identified the potential that seven levees in the Kansas City area were at risk of overtopping. Previously completed work since 1993 provided improvements to the Birmingham, Northeast Industrial District (East Bottoms), North Kansas City, and Fairfax levee districts. This funding will cover ongoing construction costs of the Argentine and Armourdale Levees in Kansas City, KS and the CID (Central Industrial District, also known as the West Bottoms) Levee that straddles the state line. These three levees along the Kansas River are estimated to protect over 7 ½ square miles of industrial properties valued at over $7 Billion. (A map of the levees is posted on the Missouri and Associated Rivers Coalition’s website, moarc.org.)
Together, these levees protect billions of dollars of investments, thousands of jobs and one of the largest rail centers in the country.
For more information, please contact Brooke Givens, Media Relations Coordinator, at brooke.givens@kcmo.org, or 816-513-0284.
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