Marysville levee work nears completion

East Marysville residents have only a few more days of construction towers looming nearby, as the most visible portion of Marysville ring levee work comes to an end for the year.

According to the US Army Corps of Engineers' Sacramento office, Friday is the planned ending day for those towers to pile drive new slurry into the levee along the city's northeast edge.

Corps spokesman Robert Kidd said work won't quite be done then, however. The next step is for testing and treatments of the levee's wall, followed by work to put aggregate on the levee's top.

"By the point Nov. 15 rolls around, we should be looking great," he said, referring to the end of all Marysville levee work for the year.

Though the large towers will be removed shortly after Friday, a smaller one will remain for core testing, he added.

Kidd said engineers and contractors made up for lost time on the levee project this year, after concerns about a contractor's work last year led the federal agency to stop early on upgrades in what was known as phase I of the overall project.

Some phase I work will still be completed next year, according to the corps. The delays resulted in a total price tag of $16 million for the phase.

Next year, Marysville residents will see more levee work, with tentative plans to put seepage berms near the levees at Binney Junction. Future phases call for improvements to levees near Simpson Lane in southeast Marysville, then to levees near Highway 70 and the Bok Kai Temple.

But corps officials have repeatedly pointed out planning for such work is one thing, but getting federal funding with a local match to do the work is another.

The total price tag for all four phases of the ring levee work, with estimated completion in 2016, is estimated at between $75 million and $100 million.

Other Yuba County levee work is still planned for 2013, with the Three Rivers Levee Improvement Authority poised to put in an access corridor along a portion of Feather River levee in west Linda, pending state approval.

Authority Executive Director Paul Brunner has said the agency will also start some projects in the Yuba Goldfields next year to address potential flooding issues there.

Exactly what work will be done is still to be determined.