Star Bend levee work back on

Replacement of a weakened Feather River levee is set to begin next week, barely two weeks after flood control authorities narrowly avoided shelving the project because of funding problems.

Work on a setback levee at Star Bend south of Yuba City is slated to start Monday morning and last four months, wrapping up by Oct. 30, said Bill Hampton, manager of Levee District No. 1, which is responsible for maintaining levees protecting Yuba

City. The project will create a new, straighter flood wall behind a section of levee that nearly buckled in the 1997 Yuba-Sutter flood before a huge sandbagging effort saved it from bursting.

Voter approval of Proposition 1E in 2006 authorized bonds to pay for upgrades to the Central Valley's aging levee network, much of it nearly a century old. The Star Bend project is to receive $16 million.

But a delay in delivering $7 million led Hampton to announce the levee district might not let out construction bids and instead would delay work for a year, to avoid moving earth during the rainy season. Demolition of the old flood wall is to take place at the same time as the building of its replacement, a job requiring the low river levels of summer.

Board members awarded an Olivehurst firm, Nordic Industries, the $4.8 million construction contract and a $300,000 management deal to MHM Inc., a Marysville engineering company.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Howard Yune at 749-4708 or hyune@appealdemocrat.com.