THE South Albury levee bank created in the wake of some of the city's worst floods in the 1970s has to undergo a major upgrade.
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Albury Council this week awarded a $98,000 contract to Wangaratta-based Water Technology Pty Ltd to carry out a feasibility study to ensure the levee can meet the present requirements for a 1:100 year flood event.
The works were listed as a priority from a floodplain risk management study adopted by council last February which preceded the most recent major flood in the Murray River last spring.
The 3.8-kilometre levee stretches from Doctors Point Road in East Albury to Smollett Street in central Albury, but is predominantly in South Albury to protect industrial and residential property from flooding.
Two major floods in South Albury in the springs of 1974 and 1975 prompted council to create the levee.
They rank in the top five biggest floods recorded in Albury with heights of 5.59m and 5.66m respectively recorded at the Union Bridge.
The biggest flood was in 1870 measuring 5.89m.
The contract works will include detailed site and geotechnical survey work of the existing levee, preliminary environmental and planning assessment and develop concept designs of the proposed levee upgrade.
The effectiveness of the levee was recently raised during a community forum for a plan to convert a former South Albury orchard into an industrial estate.
Water Technology Pty Ltd has undertaken similar projects in both Victoria and NSW and recently completed a flood risk assessment for two proposed levees in Wodonga.
It is presently working on a flood study for Wangaratta where an existing levee has threatened to break in floods last year and 2010.