XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.fan.states.iowa, sac.politics
XPost: talk.politics.guns

On 31 Aug 2021, Tritek <tritek3@gmail.com> posted some news:sglqgl$ddm$75@news.dns-netz.com:

FBInCIAnNSATerroristSlayer wrote

Stupid fucking Democrats! They worry about FAGGOTS instead of
everyone else. Let the rivers drown these ignorant bastards.

Davenport is the largest city along the Mississippi River without a
permanent floodwall or levee system. Neighboring cities, including
Bettendorf and Rock Island, built theirs decades ago.

For decades, Davenport city councils have opposed controversial plans to
build a floodwall or levee, citing costs and such a structure impeding
access to or views of the river. Instead, the city has opted to rely on a system of temporary sand-filled barriers and pumps, allowing riverfront
parks to hold floodwaters, and buying up or tearing down property in flood-prone areas.

The floodwall question is one Davenport Mayor Mike Matson has been asked frequently in recent days, including by national news outlets.

As he made his daily walk Friday along the temporary flood barriers at
East River Drive, which are twice as tall and wide this year after a 2019 breach, he told a Quad-City Times/Dispatch-Argus reporter that, in his
view, it isn't a cost-effective solution now for Davenport's 9-mile
riverfront.

"When people do talk to me straight up with that, this is what I tell
them: How do you want us to do this? Where would you like us to get the
money?" Matson said.

An estimate in 2014 put construction of a flood wall at $174 million, but Matson said more recent estimates would be much higher, more than half a billion dollars.

Instead, the city is just starting to implement a 2021-approved plan that starts underground in the storm sewers and would eventually raise parts of River Drive to protect the city up to river stage 22 feet without
temporary barriers.

In the two years of study that culminated in the plan, a city-hired
consultant surveyed about 500 residents about what they wanted to see the
city do about flooding. Just 40% said they wanted a permanent floodwall,
but most said they wanted a more permanent solution to more frequent
flooding on the Mississippi River.

Matson said a floodwall could send waters downstream.

"If we put a flood wall here (between Centennial and Government Bridges),
what is happening to the west end? Or, if we do it the whole way — what
happens to Buffalo?" Matson said.

Residents and city leadership have fiercely debated a more traditional
flood wall or levee system, like what was constructed in Bettendorf and
Rock Island, for more than half a century.

According to Quad-City Times archives, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
first proposed a flood control plan in 1969 after the devastating 1965
flood. The plan was reported to cost $16.5 million, with the city's share
at $3 million. More floodwall-related proposals were shot down in the
1970s.

Then, in 1984, the City Council withdrew its support from another corps- supported plan for a $34 million floodwall between the Government Bridge
and Interstate 280. The plan, according to the archives, would've
protected Davenport up to a 26.9-foot flood.

In Rock Island, the 1965 flood prompted city leadership to build Rock
Island's flood wall system in the early '70s. Bettendorf completed its
levee in 1987.

The record flood of 2019 in Davenport, where HESCO barriers failed,
causing upward of $30 million in lost revenue and damages, renewed debate
about whether the city needed a permanent flood wall or levee system.
After two years of planning, the City Council approved a consultant's 10-
year, $165 million plan that starts with replacing storm sewer underground
to address floodwaters that bubble up from below.

When fully implemented, the plan is designed to protect Davenport up to 22 feet. The 2019 flood reached 22.7 feet.

Two storm sewer projects are scheduled to begin construction this year.

About $1.2 million in federal earmark funds will go toward storm sewer improvements at the intersection of River Drive and Marquette Street for
minor flooding events. The project would install future bypass storm sewer
and backflow prevention to halt river water from backing up into the intersection near river stage 14.5 feet. Instead, the project would keep
the intersection un-flooded until 18 feet.

Another project that is on the same timetable as the Marquette-River Drive intersection, is a $4 million ARPA-funded storm sewer improvement that
aims to keep East River Drive access through intersections of 3rd and 4th streets up to a flood stage of 22 feet. Currently, it closes at about 17.5 feet. The plan would also install backflow prevention on the local storm
sewer system and build a new storm sewer connection.

Phases 2 and 3 of the plan, that involve construction of more permanent flood-fighting measures such as walls, berms, and permanent pumping
stations, total about $140 million.

<https://qctimes.com/news/local/so-why-doesnt-davenport-have-a-permanent- flood-wall/article_12d865d6-5a88-592a-af7d-cc91559f790a.html>

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