Funded with nearly $100 million in federal stimulus money, the Napa River / Napa Creek Flood Protection Project will be in high gear for the next three years.

Two-thirds of a mile of Napa Valley Wine Train tracks will be elevated several feet and shifted East by up to 35 feet. Two new rail bridges will be built.

Work on the $65 million railroad contract began this summer and should wrap up at the end of 2011.

Next summer, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will award a smaller contract for flood protection along a mile of Napa Creek. This work is expected to take two years.

Federal money will also pay for the design of a bypass channel to divert flood water from the river's oxbow. Construction could start in 2011.

Oringal graphic by Kelly Doren, produced for the web by Brian Kennedy. Larger map

Still to come

After the construction of Napa Creek defenses, the bypass channel and the relocation of railroad tracks, the flood project will be left with less spectacular work: the construction of flood walls and pump stations.

Flood walls need to be built along most of both banks between Third Street and Imola Avenue, a stretch of more than a mile. More flood walls will border the bypass channel and the Oxbow. Yet another flood wall will run along the west bank from the Westin Verasa hotel to slightly beyond Lincoln Avenue.

These flood walls will range in height from three to five feet. Pump stations will be built to get surface runoff through the flood walls and into the river during times of high water.

These future projects, including the construction of the bypass, are estimated to cost $75 million. The funds must be allocated by Congress. If federal funding keeps up with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ schedule, the flood project, approved by voters in 1998, could be completed in 2015.