USACE Kansas City District · 2020–2023
Kansas City Levees pump station modifications
Two contracts totaling about $17 million to upgrade ten flood-protection pump stations along the Kansas River, completed on schedule in 2023.
- Client
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Kansas City District
- Program
- Kansas City Levees
- Value
- About $17M, two contracts
- Stations
- 10 pump stations
- Performance
- Oct 2020 – 2023
- Location
- Kansas City, Kansas and Missouri
Project overview
The Kansas City Levees program is a federal investment to improve about 17 miles of levees and floodwalls that protect homes and businesses along the Kansas River in Kansas City, Kansas and Missouri. SIS's two contracts were the program's second and third construction awards, issued by the Corps' Kansas City District in September 2020 as small-business set-asides.
The larger contract, about $14 million, covered seven existing pump stations on the Armourdale Levee Unit in Kansas City, Kansas, with a performance period of 1,095 calendar days. The second covered stations on the Central Industrial District Levee Unit. Together they modernized pumping, structural stability and electrical systems at ten stations that keep interior drainage moving when the river is high.
Scope of work
- Replacement of existing pumps with higher-capacity units
- Upgrades to each station's electrical distribution system
- Transformer upgrades
- Rock anchors to resist uplift
- Concrete infill to add weight against flotation
- Reinforced concrete beams and walls bonded to existing structure with adhesive anchors
- Raised gatewells and modified slide gate stems
- Ventilation upgrades and trash rack modifications
- Metal fabrications: access ladders, railings and discharge pipe penetrations
- Temporary bypass pumping while pumps were out of service
- Demolition, site grading and vegetation restoration
Challenges and how we solved them
Keeping flood protection available during construction
Stations had to keep protecting the levee units while their pumps were removed. The work plan provided temporary bypass pumping so interior drainage could still be moved if a storm or high river arrived mid-project.
Holding older structures down when groundwater rises
Existing stations needed more resistance to flotation. Rock anchors and added concrete infill increased resistance to uplift without replacing the stations.
Bonding new structure to old
New reinforced concrete beams and walls were tied into the existing stations with adhesive anchors, strengthening them while keeping the original structures in place.
RESULT
In October 2023, the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas marked completion of the KC Levees pump station upgrades, finished as scheduled, and recognized SIS among the program's partners. Across the program, the upgraded stations can move about 12 million more gallons of water per hour during storms.
For your project
What this project shows
- Prime contractor on Corps civil works of about $17 million
- Structural, mechanical and electrical upgrades to ten stations
- Work on flood protection that must stay available
- Early construction award in a major federal levee program
- Completed on schedule, with temporary bypass pumping keeping protection available
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