SACRAMENTO DISTRICT

­The City of Marysville, Calif., is surrounded by 7.6 miles of ring levee that reduces flood risk to a population of more than 12,700 people; and an estimated 3,731 structures including the region’s largest hospital, Rideout Memorial, which provides the only level-3 trauma services to more than 100,000 people throughout the Yuba-Sutter Area. The ring levee also reduces flood risk to State Highways 70 and 20 and the Union Pacific Railroad, all major transportation facilities that run through the city. Located at the junction of the Feather and Yuba rivers, Marysville and neighboring Yuba City have been ravaged by flooding through the years – including the 1955 Christmas Eve flood that killed 38 and forced 23,000 from their homes.

Project Description

The Marysville Ring Levee project is a multi-phase project that will upgrade the levee that surrounds Marysville. The primary purpose of the project is to strengthen the existing levee by implementing additional measures to reduce the likelihood of through- and under-seepage. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District is partnering with the California Central Valley Flood Protection Board and the Marysville Levee District to complete the estimated $92.5 million project. The state of California has appropriated $17 million toward the project as part of their commitment to upgrade the state’s levee systems. Currently, project completion is slated for 2019. The project is being designed and constructed to meet the state’s requirement of 200 year-level flood risk for urban areas - or a 1-in-200 chance of flooding in any given year. Due to the elevation of the levees, the project will surpass that criteria making Marysville one of the lowest at-risk cities in California’s Central Valley after all flood reduction measures are constructed.

Opening Phase

A contract was awarded to Raito Inc. of San Leandro in August 2010 with ground breaking on the $10.8 million first phase in September 2010. Construction was completed in 2012, upgrading the levee’s fragile northeast reach by installing a seepage cutoff wall to depths over 100 feet. Funding for the first phase was provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Subsequent Phases

The next phase of work will bolster the stretch of the ring levee adjacent to Highway 70 and the Catholic cemetery using a stability berm. Necessary rights of entry were secured in September 2015, a construction contract should be awarded in the summer of 2016 and construction is slated to begin shortly thereafter. Funding will be cost-shared by the Corps, CVFPB and the Marysville Levee District.  A design contract was awarded in February 2016 for the reach adjacent to the Bok Kai Temple and PG&E substation.  Design work has been completed on levee sections near the Fifth Street Bridge with construction currently scheduled for 2017.