Officials tour Mendenhall Valley for first-hand knowledge of annual flooding threat
Published 4:30 am Tuesday, March 31, 2026
The City and Borough of Juneau welcomed officials last week as they toured Mendenhall Valley to gain first-hand understanding of the annual threat of glacial lake outburst flooding.
Assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works Adam Telle and officials from all levels of the United States Army Corps of Engineers were in Juneau the week of March 23, according to a release from the City and Borough of Juneau on March 26.
The group toured Phase 1 and Phase 2 HESCO barrier projects and took a helicopter tour of the Mendenhall River and Suicide Basin on March 23. They then sat down with representatives from CBJ, Tlingit & Haida, U.S. Forest Service, Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities, Alaska District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Pacific Ocean Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as well representatives from Senator Dan Sullivan’s and Lisa Murkowski’s offices on March 24.
The meetings were meant to help the group “align” with local, Tribal, state and federal agency partners on a multi-pronged approach to proactively protect the community from the annual threat of glacial lake outburst flooding in the near, mid and long-term.
Telle said that as they confront the threat of glacial outburs flooding in the Mendenhall Valley, he has remained “committed to balancing short, medium, and long-term risk reduction strategies.” He added that is why he was on the ground demonstrating the shared sense of urgency.
He said his office recently launched the “Building Infrastructure, Not Paperwork” initiative to “build a faster, more responsive U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that anticipates these types of problems like we see at Mendenhall and take action to prevent future catastrophe.”
During the group’s tour on March 23, excavators cleaned snow from HESCO barriers that are being installed for flood fighting construction efforts. That work is expected to be completed by July before a glacial lake outburst flooding.
The City and Borough of Juneau is preparing to raise, repair and, in some places, reconstruct the existing Phase 1 HESCO barriers, while United States Army Corps of Engineers are working on the Phase 2 HESCO barrier project. The Phase 2 project has closed the Kaxdigoowu Heen Dei (Brotherhood Bridge Trail) for one month during the installation.
