By Adam Allington, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – The City of St. Louis has signed a funding agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to make repairs to the downtown floodwall.
Colonel Lewis Setliff is the District Engineer for the Army Corps.
He said the science of levee construction has evolved significantly since the floodwall system was completed in 1974.
"When this was designed and built we didn't know then what we now about water flowing, it's called 'under seepage', under a levee. And this money will go along way in installing additional relief wells."
The $17-million project is the first stage in an upgrade that will fund 70 new relief wells and replace twenty existing flood gates.
During the flood of 1993, street department employees shored up defective floodgates with sandbags.