City: Up to $1M in HESCO repairs, next phase of barrier installation, long-term fix are next flood protection steps
- Mark Sabbatini
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
Last week’s record flood demonstrates need for "enduring solutions" that will safeguard area for generations, city manager tells Juneau Assembly
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
Among the key lessons from this year’s record flood are "how temporary those HESCO barriers are in nature" as work begins on repairing up to $1 million in damage they sustained and next-step preventative measures, City Manager Katie Koester told Juneau Assembly members on Monday.
Koester and local emergency officials reiterated the barriers were successful in preventing a large-scale disaster, with a few dozen homes sustaining mostly minor damage compared to hundreds of homes being swamped had the barriers not been there. But she said the outcome also shows the need for "enduring solutions."
"I think one thing that this event taught us — this event taught us so much, we have so much more data and information — but it really demonstrated how temporary those HESCO barriers are in nature," Koester said during a briefing at the start of Monday night’s Assembly meeting. "There's a lot of vulnerabilities, there's seepage, there's undermining of the (riverbank) armament that we have to care for."
The glacial lake outburst flood from Suicide Basin that started on the afternoon of Monday, Aug. 11, caused the Mendenhall River to reach a peak level of 16.65 feet on Wednesday morning. Some neighborhoods with barriers experienced flooding due to water seeping through the HESCO barriers and river water backing up in street drains, but of the six homes sustaining serious damage, only one was in an area with the barriers.
A preliminary estimate by the city’s engineering department and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is up to $1 million in damage occurred to the two-and-a-half-mile semipermanent levee of barriers, Koester said. That estimate includes repairs to barriers, riverbank stabilization and stacking barriers higher or otherwise reinforcing them in some areas.
The cost of the repairs will need to be paid for by the city, but "the Army Corps has committed to continuing to provide technical assistance and HESCO barriers for us," Koester said. The Assembly on Friday approved a local disaster declaration seeking state and federal aid, and Gov. Mike Dunleavy last week issued a preemptive state disaster declaration intended to speed up the process of seeking such assistance.
Assessments of how to safeguard against the problems that occurred this year are also underway. Ryan O'Shaughnessy, the city’s emergency programs manager, said only one location saw "a full failure of the HESCO barriers" when a tree struck near the Dimond Park Field House, destroying a roughly 15-foot section of the levee.
"We were very lucky with that tree strike — there was no water that came through," he said, "Both the timing and location were very fortunate. If that tree strike had occurred farther upstream, we could be having a very different conversation."
Five of the six homes suffering major damage were on View Drive, where officials have stated HESCO barriers would be ineffective due to essentially being a peninsula surrounded by water on three sides. Next steps for that neighborhood include a possible buyout for homeowners via the Emergency Watershed Protection Program, which is scheduled to be considered this fall.
Among the next steps beyond repairs is the proposed second phase of HESCO barrier installation, which will extend both ends of the current levee on the east side of the river as well as install some along the west side, Koester said. The barriers to the north of the current levee would be placed on both sides from the Riverside Condominiums area to the Back Loop Bridge. The barriers to the south would extend through Vintage Business Park to the Juneau Airport area, with barriers on both sides along most of the route.
A lot of questions need to be addressed before that second phase of installation can take place, Koester said.
"How exactly do we propose to pay for it?" she said. "What's the cost-benefit of that and kind of that maintenance question, too. Phase two is going to be more expensive because there's more bank armoring to do, which is the real cost driver. It's also protecting more commercial property, more multifamily homes."
Some funding for the first phase of barriers was obtained by establishing a Local Improvement District that required 466 property owners in the area to pay nearly $6,300 each over a 10-year period to cover up to 40% of the installation and maintenance cost of the barriers. The city is paying the remainder, with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers providing the barriers and advice on their installation for free.
The barriers are envisioned as a safeguard for up to a decade, which is roughly the amount of time officials with the city and Army Corps of Engineers say is needed to study and implement a more permanent solution. Alaska’s congressional delegation and some residents have called that timeline unacceptably long, and that sentiment was reiterated by Amanda Hatch, a Meander Way resident, during the public testimony portion of Monday night’s meeting.
"The (HESCO) project was not a complete success, and it's hurtful and demeaning to hear our city leaders tout it as such," she said, adding flooding of streets, yards, and homes in her neighborhood continued for hours after the river crested Wednesday. She said all but one of the five pumps among 21 homes in the neighborhood were provided by the homeowners and the machines were unable to keep up with the water flow.
"We refuse to continually sacrifice our lives for the next decade while you sit in your unaffected homes across town touting your precious project as a resounding success," she said. "We deserve a permanent, effective solution quickly. Dredge the river, dam the lake, don't bet on HESCOs."
However, gratitude for the barriers was offered by Alyson Cooper, another Meander Way resident, who told the Assembly, "I have some big, pretty green barriers right behind my house. They look a lot nicer this week."
"I went fishing Saturday and then I invited people over to my house for a backyard barbecue," she said. "This time last year, I was ripping out flooring and insulation and my cabinets and my appliances. Mostly, there were hundreds of homes that were spared and there were hundreds of people like me whose lives were not turned upside down this year. And I just want to thank you."
Koester, during her overview, said among the officials involved in post-flood meetings in Juneau were U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Army Corps of Engineers Brig. Gen. Joseph Goetz II, both of whom are advancing efforts toward a long-term flood-prevention solution. She said the next steps on that will be a technical study by the Corps of Engineers, which will provide data for a subsequent engineering study that results in a preferred alternative being presented to Congress for funding.
"Again, our delegation is very committed to finding us that funding," Koester said. "And I think what I ask out of the community is that when we know exactly what we need to be asking for, that we support that request in a coordinated way so that we can make their lives easier, but still demonstrate the overwhelming support for long-term, enduring solutions for our community."
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
