Antelope Valley Project

The Antelope Valley Project is a flood control, economic development, transportation and community revitalization project in Lincoln, Nebraska. Centered on the flood control channel provided for Lincoln's Antelope Creek, the project is planned to run from just beyond J Street in the South to Salt Creek to the North, with the creek fully contained within the channel. The total cost of the project is $238,000,000. The project is the largest public works project in the history of the city.

Lincoln's Antelope Valley Project creates a fresh aesthetic and a critical infrastructure complex. Everything centers on the 'wandering' and occasionally flooded Antelope Creek—now with the Project's new waterway as a control. A Project design/map can be found at: http://www.lincoln.ne.gov/city/pworks/projects/antelope/phasing/pdf/phasing.pdf.

The Project creates a green belt of parkland in the heart of the city. Vehicular and pedestrian bridges add utility and a post modern aesthetic. Other project features include: Antelope Valley Parkway, a vehicular traffic way running from Cornhusker Highway South via the Parkway merging into Capital Parkway; a major vehicle arterial running from 27th Street West via State Fair Road merging into Salt Creek Roadway at the 'big X' and onto 9th Street; miles of recreational trails connected to an extensive city trail network; rail, pedestrian and vehicular bridges across the waterway; Trago Park and Union Plaza, both interactive water venues: access to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus and the planned UNL research park through pedestrian and bicycle trails, bridges as well as major vehicular parkways, enumerated above.

The waterway carries the 100-year flood run-off. It centers on the new grass-lined Antelope Creek waterway. To create the channel, the Corps of Engineers designed and managed a 'big dig'--miles in length. Water flows North into the larger Salt Creek. Aside from providing the channeling complex for the last miles of the creek, the waterway connects on the South directly with Antelope Creek as it flows from Holmes Lake to the Southeast.

On May 7, 2015, the city of Lincoln experienced its worst flood in recent history, following over six inches of rain beginning the night of May 6, 2015. In areas near the waterway, rain water and flood water was largely contained in the waterway, as was intended by its design. Though flooding in other areas of the city submerged cars and prevented driving, traffic flowed freely on the bridges and roads along the waterway. The waterway also channels excess flow from Salt Creek, mitigating the chances of the water level of Salt Creek from exceeding the levee height. On May 7, Salt Creek water levels were declared dangerously near its maximum; it is likely that without the Antelope Valley waterway providing this channel, water from Salt Creek may have spilled over and led to much heavier flooding in a large track of land along the Creek, which contains many residences. Though critics of the project decried its high price tag, the waterway's worth was tested and proven by the response to this storm.

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