Work starting on $1.8 billion Sacramento River levee project

Construction is about to start on a $1.8 billion levee project in the Sacramento area.

The first stage of construction will start on the east levee of the Sacramento River..

“Sacramento is the number one urban flood risk in the nation,” Nikole May, senior project manager with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, told Fox40 TV. “This project is to address the seepage, stability, overtopping and erosion concerns associated with the lower American River and the east side of the Sacramento River,” May said.

The $1.8 billion project, funded through federal, state and local partners, is expected to take five years.

“We’re going to put a concrete cutoff wall through the middle of the levee to stop the water from going through,” May said.

The walls will go as deep as 135 feet underground to keep water from spilling out into neighborhoods.

The project’s first phase along the east levee is expected to conclude in 2020. The rest of the improvements will take place between now and 2024.