DEVILS LAKE - Crews are working to finish raising the dike system protecting this city, before winter sets in.

The $8 million project will add 3 feet of protection from the lake, which reached a record high level in June.

"This adds to our level of comfort," Mike Grafsgaard, the city engineer, said of the project.

"It's a prudent step to take. It puts us in the position where, if there is a large magnitude flooding event, we've taken measures to protect the city," he said.

The city's dikes currently safeguard it to an elevation of 1,451 feet, with 6 more feet for wave action. The raise will mean protection to 1,454 feet with the top of the dike at 1,460.

The lake's current level is 1,448.4 after reaching an all-time high of 1,449.1 in late June.

"We had always talked about an action level of 1,448 at freeze-up or 1,449 in the summer," Grafsgaard said. "That was the action level where we'd not necessarily build, but at least discuss building."

Crews are stripping 4 inches of topsoil from the top of the dikes. Three feet of clay will be placed atop it this fall. Next year, the topsoil will be returned and the rip-rap and bedding added to complete the project.

The dike line will be lengthened from 7.5 miles to 8.3 miles, said Kurt Heckendorf, who works on the project for the Army Corps of Engineers.

"The contractor thinks he can get everything done this fall, working from sunup to sundown," Heckendorf said.

The dikes are sturdier and wider than those that protect Grand Forks from the Red River.

"Geo-technically, they're built like a dam," Grafsgaard said. "They're built to sustain a water surface up against them continuously. They're designed to control seepage over a long time.

"Levees on rivers are designed to hold back the water for a time before the water goes down," he said. "Levees here have a lot more beef."

The cost of the project is split 75 percent federal and 25 percent local, with the Water Commission picking up the local share.

With the wet and cool summer, the lake has not experienced its normal drop from evaporation. Officials say it is down only a half-foot from its peak, compared with 11/2 feet of evaporation normally.

Neighboring Stump Lake still has room for some of Devils Lake's overflow. The lake has spread over 135,000 acres, meaning a rise comes more slowly.

The city built the levee to a level of 1,440 feet in the early 1980s, just before the region went through a dry cycle. The cycle began changing in 1993, with a series of heavy rains and major snowmelts.

"The water came up so fast that the change orders came as the levee was being built," Grafsgaard said. "The levee height went from 1,447 to 1,452 to 1,457 from 1997 to 1999."