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ALTON - Alton is preparing once again to hold off the flood waters from the downtown area with a muscle wall and stackable barriers.

Alton Public Works Director Bob Barnhart led a group that erected barriers and walls protecting downtown near Morrison’s in Downtown Alton, across from Ardent Mills on Wednesday afternoon.

“Today and yesterday, we started looking at river forecasts and began moving equipment and material down to the downtown side of State and Broadway,” Barnhart said. “We anticipated flood waters are going to top one of the top four or five floods in Alton history. We expect the water to go up 4 to 5 feet at the intersection of State and Broadway near Morrison’s.”

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Barnhart explained what was being installed at that intersection: “We have some concrete type of stackable barriers and we also have a muscle wall. We have the stackable wall barriers in the lower areas where we need a taller wall and we will depend on muscle walls where we have higher evaluation areas.”

The public works director said his team is ready with sandbags, with 500 to 1,000 already filled from a Madison County Emergency Management Sandbagging Machine.

“It doesn’t take us long to process 100 bags,” he said. “Right now we don’t have a need for volunteers, but we know people will come if we need them.”

Alton Mayor Brant Walker praised Barnhart and his Public Works Department and said his goal is to keep the businesses in the downtown area safe from the rising floodwaters.

Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.

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Related Video:

Aerial Coverage of the Flood Wall Expansion & Downtown Area

Alton Mayor Walker gives update on flood preparation