Flood bypass construction to close McKinstry Street

A section of McKinstry Street will close for 45 days beginning March 23 so workers can remove the final, big obstacle to completing the downtown Napa flood bypass channel.

That obstacle is McKinstry Street itself. The street extends across the eastern end of the bypass like a 6-foot-high dam. For the bypass to function as planned, McKinstry Street needs to be reconstructed at a lower elevation.

Once the McKinstry Street section is lowered, water will be able to flow over it during those rare times when the bypass is handling Napa River floodwaters.

The McKinstry Street work signals that the $12.6 million U.S. Army Corps of Engineers bypass construction project is entering its final stage. Besides lowering McKinstry Street, remaining tasks include hydro-seeding parts of the bypass to provide more vegetation.

Well be out of there come mid-June, Corps spokesman Tyler Stalker said Monday.

Then Napa will have an escape valve for the Napa River when big storms hit. Rising floodwaters will top the weir at the eastern end of the bypass near the Oxbow Public Market and run for a quarter mile through the bypass to rejoin the Napa River just below First Street near Veterans Memorial Park.

Most of the time, the bypass will be dry and Napa will have a 13-acre, park-like setting with walking paths linking the downtown with the Oxbow business district.

McKinstry Street is not a thoroughfare. It provides a secondary entrance to the Oxbow district, which has shops and restaurants. People during the street closure will still be able to reach the Oxbow through the primary entrances at First Street from either Soscol Avenue or Silverado Trail.

In addition, the northern section of McKinstry Street outside the bypass will remain open.

Nordic Industries is the contractor doing the McKinstry Street work. A letter from the company said it will demolish the McKinstry Street asphalt in the bypass section, lower the street and build new curbs, gutters and a concrete street surface.

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Flood bypass construction to close McKinstry Street