Eureka is getting a floodwall to protect Old Town.
The Eureka Board of Aldermen voted unanimously on Dec. 17 to approve a $7.3 million contract with Keeley Construction Group Inc. of St. Louis to construct an earthen wall along Flat Creek from west of Bald Hill Road to Hwy. 109 suitable for withstanding a 500-year flood event.
The project includes a new detention basin and stormwater pump station. A lagoon berm will be elevated by two feet at the Missouri American Water wastewater treatment plant on Labarque Way Road.
City Clerk Julie Wood said Keeley Construction submitted the lowest of five bids.
The city will fund the construction with a $4 million grant it received from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and funds from the Proposition E 1/2-cent sales tax, Wood said. Voters approved Prop E in 2018 for city capital improvements, including the construction of a new Police Station, replacing the Allenton Bridge and for flood mitigation measures.
Mayor Sean Flower said the floodwall project began six years ago to prevent major flood events in Old Town. According to a 2020 flood protection plan from the city, two major floods in 2015 and 2017 caused approximately $10.7 million in damage to public facilities, businesses and homes.
“I’ll just be excited to see (the floodwall) completed, to go out there and watch that thing be done and know the issue is gone,” Flower said. “I think that people have heard about it for so long and they kind of don’t believe that stuff will happen. It will be very satisfying to get this one done.”
Flower said the contractor will begin work as soon as the weather allows and estimates the floodwall will be completed in the fall.
Flower said as the floodwall is being constructed, the city is also working with Missouri American Water to ensure the wastewater treatment plant can maintain operations during future flood events.
The new floodwall will help save money on flood insurance premiums for business owners and residents in the Old Town area, Flower said, as well as attract new businesses to the city.
“Based on historic flooding, (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) was going to change the flood map so that basically everything from, say, the Circle K gas station, all the way up to the railroad tracks, was going to be the flood plain,” Flower said. “Number one, (the businesses and homeowners in Old Town) would all have to be paying expensive flood insurance premiums, and number two, there are limits on how much they could spend or do to fix it up.”
Areas once prone to flash flooding, such as near O’Dell’s Irish Pub or Butler Electrical Contracting on Central Avenue, Flower said, won’t have that risk with the new floodwall. Flower said he’s spoken with many business owners interested in developing in Eureka who are hesitant to come to Old Town due to flooding.
“If they know the area won’t flood, I think you’ll see several areas open up, key areas,” he said. “It will make it a lot more attractive to people to come in and invest. (The floodwall) should put to bed that flash flooding issue in a particularly bad spot.”