Senator Ricketts Speaks on Levee Repairs Near Peru as Part of $300M in Regional Projects

Repairs to the R-562 levee system north of Peru, damaged during the 2019 Missouri River flood, are moving forward as part of a $43 million project expected to be complete by November 2027, following delays tied to permitting, funding and a lapse in the levee’s federal maintenance status.

U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts and Army Corps of Engineers officials toured the site Monday, July 6, to review progress on the repairs.

The levee failed in five places during the 2019 flood. Temporary structures were installed in front of the breaches while permanent repairs were designed, with plans to remove the temporary levees once construction is complete, Col. Rob Newbauer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers explained.

Asked whether the levee would have been repaired sooner had it remained under active maintenance, Newbauer said yes: “It would have been fixed in a more expedient time.”

Under Corps implementation guidance, available resources are directed first toward levee systems still enrolled in the federal rehabilitation program before those that have fallen out of it. “We’re to focus your available resources on systems that are inside the program,” Newbauer said. “And once you’ve done that, you focus on ones that are outside the program.”

Before the 2019 flood, the R-562 system had dropped out of that federal program due to deferred maintenance. “Then-state Sen. Julie Slama worked with the state to get that deferred maintenance paid so things could move forward,” Ricketts said.

Legislation passed in 2020, secured by Sen. Deb Fischer and Rep. Adrian Smith, allowed funding for the current round of repairs to move forward. “That’s when they got it passed, so that’s when the whole process could kick off to be able to do all the work,” Newbauer said.

Ricketts said roughly $300 million in levee and flood mitigation projects are currently underway up and down the lower Missouri River. “We want to encourage state, Natural Resource Districts and local entities to help with oversight and maintenance to protect the lives and property of residents of Peru and the area,” he said.

Once construction on the R-562 project is finished, the Corps will turn over an operations and maintenance manual to the local levee sponsor, Brett Adams, outlining responsibilities under the P.L. 84-99 rehabilitation program going forward.