Work beginning on Devils Lake levee

DEVILS LAKE, N.D. — Work is beginning on the first phase of a project to raise the levee protecting the city of Devils Lake from the flooding body of water with the same name.

The Army Corps of Engineers in October awarded a $21 million contract to the Minnewaukan firm MI-TY Trucking and Excavating for the work.

President Diane Schroeder-Monda says crews this week plan to do some ground-clearing and pipeline work. She says it will take a couple of weeks to finish.

The project's first phase includes raising the embankments around the Creel Bay area where wave action is a problem, from an elevation of 1,460 feet to 1,466 feet. A new pump station also will be built. Schroeder-Monda says the bulk of the work will begin in March.

The corps might eventually raise the entire 8-mile, three-section dike up to at least 1,468 feet, which would be done in several phases at an estimated cost of up to $113 million.

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