Levee restoration price rises

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Oct 21, 2008 by Tim Hrenchir

By Tim Hrenchir

THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

The estimated price tag for restoring the Kansas River levee in Topeka has risen from $17 million to $23.5 million.

Eric Lynn, Topeka levees project manager for the Army Corps of Engineers in Kansas City, Mo., shared the latter figure with members of the Topeka-Shawnee County Riverfront Authority at their monthly meeting Monday.

The federal government will pay for 65 percent of the restoration costs if Congress decides to go ahead with the project, Lynn said.

Monday's estimate comes after Topeka public works director Mike Teply told city council members April 15 that the anticipated cost for the levee project would be $17 million, with the city being expected to pay about $6 million of that. The council voted that day to levy an increase in stormwater runoff fees expected to raise enough revenue to would cover the $6 million.

But Lynn told riverfront authority members Monday that in 2008 dollars, the cost for the project is estimated to be almost $20 million. That rises to about $23.5 million when factoring in interest and inflation, he said.

Lynn said officials with the Corps of Engineers' Kansas City District are conducting a feasibility study regarding the project and plan to seek its approval from the corps at a meeting in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 29. That will be Kansas Day, noted riverfront authority chairman Mike Hayden, a former governor of Kansas.

Lynn said for the project to become a reality, it then would need to be listed in the next Water Resources Development Act approved by Congress. Hayden said Congress appears likely to consider such an act late next year. Lynn suggested it would be at least three to five years before levee restoration work began.

Riverfront authority members Hayden, Beth Fager, Doug Kinsinger, Bob Sachs, Ralph Skoog and Larry Tenopir all attended Monday's meeting, where Lynn told them the corps is looking at potential levee restoration at other sites that include Manhattan, the Kansas City area and St. Joseph, Mo. He said estimated $85 million for the project in Kansas City and $35 million at St. Joseph, Mo. Lynn didn't have an estimate for Manhattan.

The riverfront authority also made plans Monday to present copies to the Shawnee County Commission and Topeka City Council next month of the Kansas Riverfront Master Plan it voted to accept Sept. 29. That document lays out a plan for developing a mixed-use district along the riverfront just north of downtown Topeka as well as trails and access points elsewhere along the river between S.W. Urish Road and Seward Avenue.

Hayden said the riverfront authority will make presentations to the commission Nov. 13 and to the council Nov. 18.

The master plan is available online at http:// www.topekachamber.org/downloads/08_riverfront_final.pdf.> The plan estimates overall costs will be $62.33 million for riverfront development planning, design and construction between 2009 and 2017, with potential funding sources including tax- increment financing and federal, state and local government. That figure doesn't include levee restoration costs.

Tim Hrenchir can be reached at (785) 295-1184 or tim.hrenchir@cjonline.com.