Work starts today on shoring up a weakened Carroll County levee that threatens a key state highway.     Some of the Sugartree Bottom Levee has slid away on the landward side, leaving a three-to-four feet wide scarp, weakening the wall’s protection for Highway 65.  The Corps emergency management chief, Jud Kneuven, says there’s a 50-50 chance that section of the levee eventually could fail if it’s not repaired, closing 65 for a couple of months if the weak spot fails. 

That’s why the Corps is going to use some 2,000 pound sandbags to add weight to the back of the levee to support it. ..

The levee is owned by a private district to which the Corps provides technical assistance.  The Corps has consulted with the National Guard, which has flown some of those big sandbags to workers at other weakened levees in the last few weeks.  The state will have to decide whether the site is inaccessible enough to warrant the use of the Guard to get the bags to it. 

 Jud Kneuven of the Corps discusses situation 3:59 mp3