By Bill Raack, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – Work will begin soon to repair several deteriorating gates in the St. Louis floodwall along the Mississippi River north of downtown.
Officials announced today that $2 million has been appropriated by Congress, allowing the project to move forward. The Army Corps of Engineers says the floodwall would still protect the city, but St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay says the repairs must be made,
"The country learned a hard lesson in New Orleans. We can invest a relatively small amount of money now to do prevention or risk spending a huge amount of money and risking many lives later if we don't do anything and then cleaning up the damage later."
The city has raised $6 million through bond issues for the project and President Bush is asking Congress for another $2 million for the work. About $8 million more must still be found to finish the floodwall repairs.
Dave Busee with the Army Corps of Engineers says the repairs are badly needed. "It's in good enough shape that we're protected against the flood right now but we know there's issues. And the important thing is to reduce risk. We don't have perfect gates. We have issues with them so what we're trying to do is increase the protection that the city has."
Busee says there is no timetable for completing the floodwall repairs but it won't take the 14 years that it took to secure funding for the work.