Contract Approved for Arkansas River Levee Repair Project

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Looking downriver at the Arkansas River and Pueblo Levee Mural near the 4th Street Bridge.
Shanna Lewis / 91.5 KRCC
Looking downriver at the Arkansas River and Pueblo Levee Mural near the 4th Street Bridge.

 The Pueblo Conservancy District awarded the contract for phase one of the project to repair the aging Arkansas River levee. The estimated cost for this initial phase is $3.6 million and is expected to begin in November and end in March.  KRCC’s Shanna Lewis reports.

The full repair project is likely to span three or four winters and will destroy the collection of murals painted on the levee by hundreds of artists since the 1970s. It’s the largest outdoor mural in the world.

The district will contract with aerial photographer John Wark to document the artwork. Conservancy district attorney Don Banner says Wark will shoot high-resolution images from both the air and ground.

“The memory will be preserved for the benefit of the public,” says Banner. “Different groups might have a different use for that kind of material, and we can make it available to them.”

Banner says the 105-megapixel images could be printed as large as eight feet by ten feet. The local arts community is looking for ways to preserve portions of the mural.