DAVENPORT, Iowa — The day after the Mississippi River crested in Rock Island around 21.5 feet, Davenport Public Works Director Nicole Gleason told City Council the department is continuing to watch the river as flood waters recede.
Once the river levels reach 18 feet, crews will begin demobilizing temporary flood wall barriers. That will happen sooner in Davenport's East Village, Gleason said, where flood waters didn't reach as high. Crews will also continue monitoring pumps 24/7 until the river reaches 15 feet.
However, a long-term flood resiliency plan could change how the city fights floods in the future.
In 2021, the Mississippi River Flood Resiliency Plan was approved. If fully implemented, it's estimated to cost $165 million and would protect Davenport's nine-mile riverfront from floods up to 22 feet.
The plan addresses underground sewer improvements, pumping stations, berms, road elevation changes and shorter flood walls.
Implementing projects in the initial phase of the plan, are moving slow, but making progress, Assistant Public Works Director Clay Merritt said.
"Oftentimes, it's, 'Oh, why hasn't that happened yet?'" he said. "Sometimes you have to secure those multi-million dollars in order to perform the project. Engineering on some of these can take upwards to a year. You throw in the state and federal permitting processes, which is once again, outside of our control. We're just waiting for someone to tell us go. And so sometimes these are a little long term in terms of being able to implement, but we actually have quite a few things ready to go from something that was just approved a couple years ago."
One of the projects making progress toward implementation is upgrading storm sewers underground to address floodwaters that come up from below.
One of those upgrades is a $4 million project near where River Drive meets 3rd and 4th streets. Funding for that has been secured.
"Design should be completed this late summer, fall," Merritt said. "Right now we're going through the permitting process to do that, because of its proximity to the river. For example, we have to get a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Construction should be this fall, early winter."
The upgrades would include backflow prevention that would halt river water from overflowing into the street. It would protect that area of River Drive up to a 22-foot flood stage. Currently, Merritt said, the area closes around 18 feet.
Merritt said another $1.82 million sewer upgrade at the River Drive and Marquette intersection is moving forward. Those improvements will help during minor floods and keep the area unflooded until 18 feet.
"We have improvements to the berms on the Garden Addition that are ongoing, as well as the first of three phases at our water pollution control plant," he said. "That project design has been completed. About $12.5 million project. We have secured about a $9.8 million federal grant for construction. Currently, right now, we're just waiting for approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers."
The plan also proposed raising part of River Drive near Mound Street in the East Village. However, funding hasn't been secured yet for those.
"We've also done several grant applications, both from the federal agencies and state agencies," Merritt said. "One of which is called a 'raise grant' through the U.S. Department of Transportation and that one does include a number of road raises. If you look right now, for instance, there are sections of Rockingham, for instance, that are slightly underwater. If you were to raise those pieces, then you can continue using those as travel lanes."
Even though the projects all seem separate and can provide benefits on their own, Merritt explained they're more like a series of projects that work together. For instance, making the sewer improvements at 3rd and 4th streets, combined with raising River Drive near Mound Street, means that the whole area of East River Drive from 3rd Street all the way to Bettendorf can remain open until the flood levels reach 22 feet.
"These projects build off of one another," Merritt said.
Eventually, the hope is that these projects save the city of Davenport money. Merritt explained what one of the storm sewer projects would help save because flood fighting could begin later.
"By waiting to do those, we don't have to have city crews out there, manning pumps, trying to pump water out to keep it open," he said. "We're setting up barricades much later. At River and Marquette, we start pretty early on during a flood process pumping that water out, that saves a substantial amount of cost."
He also said it would free up crews to work on projects in the city during a flood event.
As of now, Public Works doesn't have a set date for when the whole plan will be implemented. Merritt said it's because of too many factors outside of the city's control, such as the permitting and grant funding processes.
However, while the city's been working on its long-term flood fighting projects, Merritt said many of its short-term improvements when it comes to flood fighting are working well this year.
"I've been asked several times, 'Following the '19 flood, what are you going to do different?'" Merritt said. "We've worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. We've implemented the things that the engineering firm that we hired recommended from an operational capacity. You can see that just looking at the different HESCO alignment that's currently out there now. So we've made those changes, which we think are for the better."
Davenport Public Works will continue to post updates and resources on its Facebook page.