Project: Ste. Genevieve 2 Levee District PL 84-99 Flood Recovery Levee Repairs

Location: Ste. Genevieve, MO

Project Background & Description

The town of Ste. Genevieve, MO is located along the banks of the Mississippi River just south of St. Louis.  In fact, the town has withstood two 100-year floods and one 500-year flood.  Thus, the levee system is critical to the future survival of the Missouri town.  The Ste. Genevieve Levee system sustained damages because of high-water events during the spring of 2019, requiring federal action to restore the level of flood protection with existed prior to the 2019 flood events.

Project Summary

Like the Fort de Chartres Levee slide repair project, Bloomsdale Excavating (BE) was contracted to repair wave wash erosion on 8,000 feet of the levee, fill a breached scour hole reconstruct the levee.  The existing scour hole had water twenty feet deep which required water to be pumped out as a sand fill was simultaneously placed to fill the hole.  The original plan was to obtain the sand from a borrow site at a farm located nearby. This was going to force BE to excavate 8”-12” of soil to reach the sand depth and then transport.  Fortunately, BE was able to find an alternate sand borrow source allowing sand to be delivered on day one, saving nearly three weeks to the schedule.  In total nearly 15,000 cubic yards of sand were placed and then the levee was reconstructed.

Project Success

With an intense approach to project management, BE was able to reduce the entire project to approximately two months which was half of the time estimated in the original timeline.  The new levee now provides protection to the town and several thousands of acres of nearby farmland.