KANSAS CITY, MO — The Kansas Citys Levees project broke ground at the Central Industrial District Levee Unit, marking the levee raising phase start of the $529-million project, set to raise over 17 miles of existing levees and floodwalls up five feet.

The Kansas City District; Unified Government of Wyandotte County; Kansas City, Kansas; City of Kansas City, Missouri; Lane Construction; and other project partners voiced their excitement to "move dirt” and work together.

“As a military leader this is one of my greatest joys. To be part of a team that includes community leaders working on behalf of our nation and our neighbors here in the Heartland to deliver civil works projects,” Kansas City District Commander Col. Travis Rayfield said during the ceremony.

The levee raise will improve the reliability and resiliency of the existing levee system and reduce flood risk by about 200 percent, protecting the infrastructure on the other side.

“Behind these levees we could say there are homes to tens of thousands of jobs, we could say there’s nearly $10 billion worth of infrastructure or at one count, over 30,000 homes. So, there’s a lot of metrics you can use to say this is an important piece of infrastructure,” Rayfield said. “Anybody you ask can say these levees host an incredibly vibrant portion of the regional and national economy, as well as our community’s history.”