ACOE Uses ARRA Funds for $99 Million Napa River Project

By JT Long

More than $150 million in stimulus funds will breathe new life into California flood control projects, including $99 million for a “living river” modification in Napa.

The Army Corps of Engineers plans to use $99.48 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money to speed up work on the Napa River Flood Protection Project.

More than half, $65 million, will go to accelerating the timeline on a contract with Anchorage, Alaska-based Suulutaaq, Inc. to relocate the Napa Wine Train tracks to make way for a wider riverbed. When the contract was awarded in October of 2008, Suulutaaq estimated demolishing the existing track, laying new track, street and bridge work would take two years. The Corps stretched the work out over three years to accommodate anticipated limited federal funding streams.

“We will go back and ask, ‘How much faster can you do the work by hiring more people?’ ” says Brandon Muncy, Corps chief of project management division.

A similar fast track timeline will be requested on a pair of Napa Creek culvert diversions now going to bid for an estimated $25 million to $35 million.

Muncy says the project will employ 50 to 100 people, begin construction in summer 2010 and be completed in 30 months.

“These are projects that were designed but would not have gone to bid without some kind of federal funding,” says Julie Lucido, project manager for the Napa Flood and Water Conservation District.

Napa flood control has been a long time coming. A lethal flood in 1986 and more than a decade of debate resulted in a Living River, environmentally-friendly flood control plan for the 6.9-mi stretch of water that was sensitive to the tourism economy. In 2000, the Corps began removing dikes, creating tidal marshes and replacing narrow bridges. Nine years later, they are halfway through the $400 million to-do list.

“There is no such thing as a pure engineering problem any more,” says Muncy. “We are looking for engineering firms that understand the importance of enhancing the natural environment along with the engineering work.”

“We are accomplishing two things with the stimulus,” says Bert Brown, Corps project manager for the Napa River Flood Protection Project. “We are putting more people to work and we are expediting improvements that could reduce flood risk in an area that has already seen loss of life and property.”

In Santa Clara County, $12 million will go to Guadalupe River bridge construction. Three years ago, Longmont, Co.-based Flatiron Corp. completed a $16 million, 269-ft-long, reinforced concrete slab bridge to increase vertical clearance. Now the Corps plans to replace two timber trestle bridges with steel girder bridges that eliminate debris pileup. Contracts will be awarded in June.

In Sacramento, the city deemed to be the most at-flood-risk in the country, $21 million will go to projects already contracted and under way using state and local funds. This includes improvements to the American River Watershed ($14 million) and South Sacramento County Streams ($4 million) and Folsom Bridge modifications ($3 million).

Muncy anticipates an increase in “work” in the future. It will speed up implementation of the next phase of the project -- improvements to the Oxbow Bypass, which will use money that would have gone to this work. “An additional $50 million in work could go to bid by 2011,” Muncy says.

To keep the pipeline full of designed projects, the Corps will contract with as many as 20 more engineering companies under its Indefinite Delivery; Indefinite Quantity program. The companies bid for a contract to produce up to $15 million in services in a certain number of years. This prequalification gives the Corps flexibility to determine what work to contract out based on how much money it has to spend in a given year.