Taking advantage of some dry weather, crews from the city of Davenport, have finished building a temporary floodwall along River Drive between Pershing and Iowa streets. The Mississippi River is now forecast to crest Friday, at the 17.9 foot level which is 2.9 feet above flood stage.
Director of Public Works, Nicole Gleason, says on Wednesday workers set up the Hesco barriers, filled them with sand, and wrapped the wall in plastic.
"We're setting in anticipation of if the river stays high for an extended period and we do get subsequent rain, we wanted to make sure it was in place because it is incredibly difficult to set it in the rain. It helps with the integrity of it to set it dry and have everything dry and ready to go at set up which was favorable this week."
Gleason says the river won't even begin to touch the floodwall until it reaches 18.2 to 18.4 feet, and the floodwall should protect downtown up to 20 feet.
How long the floodwall stays up on River Drive will depend on how fast the river level falls.
"So as long as we're kind of riding high on the river above that 16 1/2 to 17 level, we'll likely leave it up because several rain storms in a row, either here or north of us, can make some significant changes in the river forecast."
Out of an abundance of caution, a second row of Hesco barriers, not yet filled with sand, is attached to the first row, and can be filled if the river starts rising beyond the 18 to 19 foot level.
