After 20 Years, Lowell Park Levee Project to Finally Begin

Flood control work in Lowell Park is expected to finally get underway this month.

The contractor for US Corps of Engineers Stage 3A Flood Control Project has indicated to the city of Stillwater that construction will begin in late-June.

Work will consist of installing a storm sewer system along the west end of Lowell Park parking lots and a series of pumping manholes. Work will begin on the south end of the project at Nelson Street and proceed north.

The contractor is required to work on one parking lot at a time and to complete construction on that parking lot before they proceed to the next. Work on the entire project is to be completed by August 31. At that time the city will begin reconstruction parking lots from Nelson to Laurel Street.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a $722,000 contract to the St. Paul-based Povolny Group to begin construction of the Lowell Park levee project.

This project dates back to 1992.

The Corps has completed the first two stages of the project—a double-retaining wall running from Nelson Street to north of the Gazebo was in 1997; and a double-retaining wall was extended around Mulberry Point in 2002.

Funding was earmarked for this project and has been authorized by Congress twice and then used for flood efforts following the Fargo flood in 1997 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

When complete, the project will raise the elevation of Lowell Park by a few feet, but the plan is for trails to run above the wall—and the park will be graded so it doesn't look like a levee when it is complete.

The levee will be built to withstand a 50-year flood. A 3-foot tall sandbag levee would give 100-year flood protection.