From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):
The repair project will cost nearly $500,000 and must be completed before river flows increase in March, said Gus Sandstrom, president of the Pueblo Conservancy District, which maintains the levees. “We think it’s a crisis,” Sandstrom said. “If we didn’t do the work, we think we would flood parts of Downtown.”[…]
Although the levees along the Arkansas River and up Wild Horse Creek are maintained annually, the concrete levee along the Pueblo Whitewater Park was damaged during construction of the kayak course. “We noticed two years after the course was completed that the way they changed the flow had damaged part of the levee,” Sandstrom said. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers accepted responsibility for three of the five areas of concern on the levee, while it determined the district would have faced similar problems at two other spots if no work had been done, Sandstrom said. Repairs will address water backing up at the kayak gates, causing flows to wash away the dirt behind the levee. The repair work will cost between $300,000 and $350,000, and will include piping that will allow water to wash under the levee without carrying dirt away, Sandstrom said.
Diverting the river will cost about $100,000 and work will begin Monday. It will require constructing a small levee in the channel to steer water away from the concrete levee on the north bank. The diversion would be from Fourth Street to the Santa Fe railroad bridge, and will not diminish flows upstream or through the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk of Pueblo.
More Arkansas River basin coverage here.