Ada County installs giant flood-prevention tube near Eagle Island

It looks like a ginormous bicycle tube but it is serving as an “industrial strength” riverbank that can’t be eroded by the torrent of water coming down the Boise River, Ada County officials say. The river has been running above flood stage for weeks.

The county installed a 600-foot diversion tube near the head of Eagle Island on Friday to bolster an area where swift water eroded sections of the riverbank, according to photos and information posted on the county’s Facebook page. The giant tube was set up east of a 4,300-foot levee created three weeks ago by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

That area is east of the Sunroc gravel pit — the source of greatest concern for flooding because it’s not far from Eagle’s Island Woods and Two Rivers neighborhoods.

The tube, which cost $26,000 to build and install, was made by a Meridian business, AIRE Industrial. Crews filled the tube with river water Friday.

This story was originally published April 28, 2017 at 8:40 PM with the headline "Ada County installs giant flood-prevention tube near Eagle Island."