Some of this year’s “window” when the Mississippi River will allow levee-raising work may be lost if a key budget provision for Vicksburg District engineers is changed.

Project manager Kent Parrish of the Vicksburg District said three new projects to add height to about 10.5 miles of levee in Louisiana this fall could be affected if the Corps is no longer allowed to carry over money for a project from one year to the next.

The provision that allows projects to span multiple fiscal years is called the “continued contracts” clause, and a key subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives has considered changing or doing away with that clause this year.

“Our higher headquarters is trying to resolve the difference,” Parrish said, adding that uncertainty over the future of the clause has caused the district for the first time to delay the awarding of levee-raising contracts for the fall. “Hopefully this is a temporary setback,” he said

The river is typically low enough for levee work during late summer and fall, from about July until Thanksgiving. About three months’ lead time is necessary from when contracts are awarded until work can begin, so any further delay could be shortening the time available for work this year.

The Corps’ civil works budget is controlled by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, which is chaired by Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio.

The House hopes to have its appropriations bill complete by the time it leaves for its Memorial Day recess, said Hobson’s press secretary, Sara Perkins.

If negotiations don’t change existing contract practices, that schedule could allow enough time for the projects this year, said Vicksburg District public relations officer Michael Logue.

“We’re hopeful that there’s going to be some relief,” Logue said.

If, however, the clause is changed or dropped it could affect “anywhere we have a project that’s going to take more than a year,” Logue said.

“If we award a contract in July and the contract runs July to November, that’s going to be split by the” fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, he said.

Levee-raising projects typically take two to four years to complete, said Nancy Whitten of the 5th Louisiana Levee District, which encompasses the levee in East Carroll, Madison, Tensas and Concordia parishes.

The district has acquired property for the projects, including its first acquisition of occupied property in at least 21 years.

Negotiations to acquire the property took a year or more.

The levee-raising is being done because the Corps of Engineers determined that it was too low in places by as much as 8 feet.

The District has been working north-to-south to raise levees on both sides of the river, a project it expects to take at least 20 more years.

The stretches in question are among the last projects north of Interstate 20 in Louisiana.