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Company to begin river work in 2 weeks

By Caroline Trowbridge - | Feb 6, 2002

A Nebraska company should begin work in about two weeks along the Kansas River, just north of Eudora.

The project, designed to stabilize the north river bank, calls for construction of a series of dikes upstream from the Leavenworth County Road 1 bridge over the Kaw.

Cleon Popelka, project superintendent with Big River Construction Co. of Nebraska City, said his firm likely would begin to haul rock to the site next week, and actual construction could begin the week of Feb. 18.

Big River submitted a $668,153 bid for the first phase of the two-phase project. The second phase is scheduled for next winter, and would be sent out for bid.

Popelka said the work should take three to four weeks. It will include construction of two L-shaped dikes and a portion of a third, along with access roads from the county road to the river bank.

An estimated 30,000 tons of rock will be hauled from the N.R. Hamm Quarry in southern Jefferson County. That means trucks won’t have to travel through Eudora.

“We tried to avoid that,” Popelka said.

The project is being financed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as well as Leavenworth and Douglas counties.

The corps has agreed to pay up to $1 million of the total project cost, with the remaining split between Leavenworth and Douglas counties. Douglas County agreed to pick up 60 percent, with Leavenworth to pay the other 40 percent.