Low bids lead to more levee work
Low bids by government contractors to raise and rehabilitate Rio Grande levees will allow the federal agency in charge of the construction to complete more than 40 additional miles of work.
Because construction bids from contractors eager for work are coming in lower than expected, an additional 42 miles of Hidalgo and Cameron county levees will be included in the Lower Rio Grande Flood Control Project funded by last year’s federal economic stimulus package, said Sally Spener, a spokeswoman for the U.S. section of the International Boundary and Water Commission. A total of 123.8 miles of construction will now be funded by the original $110 million included in the stimulus act for levee rehabilitation in South Texas.
The additional miles of improvements will complete the rehabilitation of all river and internal floodway levees in Hidalgo County.
“The current economic conditions and lower fuel prices have helped to generate competitive bids and significant savings to the government,” said Spener, whose U.S. State Department agency maintains the flood-control system. “It also appears that our construction contractors are getting good prices on the materials they are using to construct the levees, which accounts for additional savings.”
Low bids for other infrastructure projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, as the stimulus act is formally known, have also allowed additional work that was initially not included in the program.
The Texas Department of Transportation received more than $20 million in cost underruns to complete bypasses and overpasses along U.S. 281 to reduce bottlenecks and bring most of the highway up to interstate-quality standards. Those cost savings were directed toward an Anzalduas International Bridge interchange at Bryan Road.
The International Boundary and Water Commission has already awarded additional contracts to rehabilitate a section of levee on the north floodway near La Villa to the Cameron County line, as well as the Arroyo Colorado north levee near La Feria, Spener said. A contract to construct 14.6 miles of levees along the Arroyo Colorado south of Weslaco and Mercedes to Rangerville will be awarded in October.
The flood-control improvements on the south Arroyo Colorado levee are scheduled for completion in April 2011, bringing the levee improvements to a close. Rod Dunlap, a civil engineer for the commission, said nearly all 123.8 miles of levee improvements in South Texas are on target to be completed by the end of this year, allowing the commission to notify the Federal Emergency Management Agency that it will certify all its levees as being able to withstand a 100-year flood.
A 100-year flood is a flood so severe that it has a 1 percent chance of occurring in any given year.
FEMA has held off releasing revised flood maps until the work on the levees is completed. The agency’s projections on maps prepared in 2007 would have forced Hidalgo County residents to spend a total of $150 million more on flood insurance each year.
Hidalgo County Judge Rene Ramirez said the levee improvements are expected to save the county’s homeowners and businesses millions of dollars in flood insurance premiums.
“You can look at this as a property or life protection issue. You can look at the economic development and new jobs it creates,” he said. “But you have to believe that FEMA is now going to give us a better flood map than what we’ve been looking at in the past, which is a relief to anyone who might have been forced to buy flood insurance.”
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Jared Janes covers Hidalgo County government, Edinburg and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4424.
