Emerging from the Mississippi River and Tributaries System's worst flood season in history, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and its contractors are gearing up to deliver $802 million worth of repair and reconstruction—more than three times the MR&T's annual operating budget—while continuing to battle ongoing fall and winter floods as well. The funds dedicated to MR&T repairs are part of $1.7 billion appropriated to the Corps under the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act signed by President Barack Obama on Dec. 23. The amount is well shy of the Corps-estimated, $2-billion top-to-bottom cost to repair all system damages from the 2011 floods, but it is enough to "aggressively attack most of our critical-safety projects," says Scott Whitney, regional flood risk manager in the Corps' Mississippi Valley Division.
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