Construction on the key components in the Aberdeen/Hoquiam flood relief plan will be delayed a year due to the state Legislature’s inability to pass a capital budget.

“Because of the budget, there will be a delay of our flood plan of a year,” said Dee Ann Shaw, Aberdeen City Councilwoman and chair of the Public Works committee, at Wednesday’s council meeting.

Nearly $2 million is in the capital budget bill for Fry Creek alone. Under the Timberworks plan — Aberdeen and Hoquiam’s comprehensive flood plan — a new floodgate and pump would be placed at the mouth of the creek, along with a large retention pond. Several areas along the creek would see culverts removed and even some streets closed as the creek is “daylighted” — removing all overhead structures. According to project designers, Fry Creek would revert back to a more natural state than it’s seen in a century.

The Chehalis Basin Flood Authority supplied the initial grant in the design of the North Shore Levee, which would run from the east bank of the Hoquiam River to the west bank of the Wishkah River along the north bank of the Chehalis River. The wall has been designed so, if FEMA approves, more than 2,700 homes would be taken out of the floodplain and no longer be required to carry flood insurance.

Aberdeen Mayor Erik Larson had hoped actual construction of the levee would begin in the summer of 2019. Because the $30-plus million earmarked for dispersal by the Chehalis Basin Flood Authority to construct local priority flood control projects, and about another $80 million from other sources, is locked up in the yet to be passed capital budget bill, construction may be put on hold until 2020.