A state grant of almost $4 million was received by Reclamation District 348 to fix five miles of levees on the south bank of the Mokelumne River — from Interstate 5 west, to Wimpy's Marina near the Sacramento County line. (Brian Feulner/News-Sentinel)

$4 million overhaul begins to strengthen Thornton levees

Thanks to a state grant of nearly $4 million, workers are busy adding to five miles of levees on the south side of the Mokelumne River.

Independent Construction Co., a Concord firm, will add some compacted dirt to beef up the sand levee along the river from Interstate 5 west to Wimpy's Marina at the Sacramento County line, said Aleck Dambacher, a reclamation district board member.

Levees east of I-5 have already been restored.

Crews were busy Tuesday pulling sand away from the levee and replacing it with one-and-a-half feet of fine-crushed rock from the base of the levee to the top. Dambacher said the addition of crushed rock should function to prevent rainwater from seeping through the existing sand levee and prevent saturation of the levee. The levee is 15 to 16 feet high.

"We'll do whatever we can before it rains and do the rest next year," Dambacher said. "By next year at this time, we should be all the way to Wimpy's."

The reclamation district, which serves the Thornton area, was awarded a grant of just under $4 million from the California Department of Water Resources. That came as a surprise to reclamation district officials, because engineers estimated the project would cost about $7.5 million. But the low bid came in at about half that amount. Dambacher suspects the low bid stems from the tough economic times the country is facing.

"These people are sitting around with idle (construction) equipment," Dambacher said.

A backhoe claw is used to help place a filter fabric on the side of a levee being repaired Tuesday afternoon in Thornton. (Brian Feulner/News-Sentinel)