Study recommends improvements to Tulsa-area levee system

TULSA, Okla. (AP) – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has proposed a $160 million plan to shore up levees around Oklahoma’s second largest city that have been weakened by periodic flooding.

The Corps released a feasibility study Monday that recommends altering existing levees and rebuilding pump stations to protect lives and property served by the 75-year-old Tulsa-West Tulsa Levee System.

The Corps is required to complete a study of the nation’s levees by September 2020, but city and state officials wanted the study expedited after hundreds of homes and business were inundated during historic flooding along the Arkansas River.

Engineers say floods have made Tulsa’s levees less effective. State officials say that while they held back water for weeks during the spring, a breach would have caused catastrophic flooding over a wide area.