[Dion]

New High River dikes should prevent flooding

HIGH RIVER - High River will never again see a repeat of last June’s flood if the current frenzy of dike-building does its job, say town officials.

Six kilometres of dikes are being built by dozens of crews to contain more water from the Highwood River than what laid waste to much of the town on June 20, 2013.

Reiley McKerracher, the town’s manager of engineering, said the dikes are engineered to withstand the volume of last year’s flood, plus an extra metre.

“In a number of locations, because we’ve actually diked the river in and confined it, we’ve pushed water levels up,” he said. “We’ve compensated for that water level, plus added another metre on top, so in some locations our dikes are 1.7 metres higher than the water levels last year.”

The total length of all the dikes together is 6,291 metres

“Almost all the way through town, we’re going to have some sort of protection,” said McKerracher.

“It’s an immense amount of work. These are multi-year projects that we’ve compressed into months to make happen in time for this year.”

“We’re very confident. Once it’s complete, if we had a reoccurrence of last year, the town would be protected.”

http://www.calgarysun.com/2014/04/30...event-flooding