The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is willing to move up the construction of flood defenses on Napa Creek by three years, but that is still not as soon as creek residents want.

Residents had wanted the corps to start creek work next year, at the same time that construction is scheduled to begin on the first of two new railroad bridges in the Napa River Oxbow.

In a letter sent to the local flood district last week, Brandon C. Muncy, chief of the corps’ civil works branch in Sacramento, said this would not be possible. A contract for railroad construction will be ready to go to bid by February, while the design of the creek project won’t be finished until mid-summer, Muncy said.

It makes more sense, Muncy said, to first build a replacement bridge over the river and a new one over the planned flood bypass channel — a two-year effort — and then to tackle the creek at the same time as the digging of the bypass in 2010.

Construction of culverts and flood terraces along the creek could be tied to the bypass contract, with the creek work starting first, Muncy said.

Napa Mayor Jill Techel, who chairs the local flood board, called the corps’ proposal a “real step forward.” As things now stand, work on Napa Creek isn’t scheduled to begin until 2013.

“It’s a real win-win, given what we can control,” Techel said of the corps’ willingness to meet Napa half way.

Linda Kerr, leader of the neighborhood group, In Harm’s Way, said Muncy’s proposed schedule was not good enough. “It is just unacceptable that (Napa Creek) is being pushed off into the future. We need a fix now,” she said Monday.

In Harm’s Way had hoped that the corps could siphon off some federal money from the railroad contract to start Napa Creek construction within a year or two.

If the railroad construction has to occur first, then Napa Creek should be the absolute first priority afterward, before any attempt is made to dig the bypass channel, Kerr said.

Residents along Napa Creek north of downtown argue that the creek, which has flooded eight times in 12 years, is a greater menace than the river, which floods a wider area but does so less often.

Given how federal funding has lagged, Kerr said the railroad work, scheduled to occur in 2008 and 2009, could take four or five years. Creek residents could flood another time or two in the meantime, she said.

Heather Stanton, director of the local flood project, conceded the revised schedule, as suggested by Muncy, depends on the federal government giving the corps the money it needs.

If Congress and the president continue to underfund the Napa project, all phases will continue to fall behind as has been happening in recent years, she said.

Constructing two new railroad bridges and moving Napa Valley Wine Train’s tracks is estimated to cost $40 million, which would require a $20 million federal allocation in each of the next two years, Stanton said.

The president and Congress are currently talking about allocating between $7.5 million and $11 million next year, Stanton said. Unless this amount is bumped up substantially in coming weeks, it would take more than two years to complete the railroad portion of the Oxbow project, she said.

Napa Creek and the bypass are each estimated to cost between $15 million and $20 million.

In his letter, Muncy said the creek could be folded into the bypass contract in 2010 “in a manner that emphasizes the commencement of the Napa Creek work first, while ensuring proper guidelines are followed with respect to government contracting.”

There is no assurance, Kerr said, that the creek project, which could be accomplished in two years if full funding were available, won’t limp along over many years, with most of the annual federal allocation siphoned off for the bypass.

The city has applied for a FEMA hazard mitigation grant that would cover $3 million of the estimated $5 million to install culverts on the lower reach of the creek near Main Street.

If the grant is awarded, the lower culverts could potentially be built in 2009, thus reducing the amount of future work on the creek.

The local flood district is applying for additional grants to fully pay for the lower culverts, Stanton said.

In Harm’s Way is suggesting that Napa pay any additional culvert costs from the $5.66 million that the local flood district will be paying the city for lost parking downtown and Kennedy Park acreage needed for flood terraces.

Local officials will make another trip to Washington D.C. in mid-September to lobby elected leaders and the corps for more money. “That’s really the answer to everyone’s frustration,” Stanton said.

If the corps gets only half of what it needs for railroad work next year, then it would build half a railroad bridge over the future bypass and complete it the following year before moving to replace the current river bridge, she said.

This expensive rail work is not for Wine Train’s benefit, Stanton said, but is needed to make the flood project work.

The local flood board, which supports the federal flood project, is scheduled to meet Sept. 11 to discuss Muncy’s letter.