{"id":16865,"date":"2025-10-22T00:43:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T00:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/16865\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T00:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T00:43:07","slug":"kern-river-weir-reopens-reducing-flood-risk-in-bakersfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/16865\/","title":{"rendered":"Kern River weir reopens, reducing flood risk in Bakersfield"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After suffering water damage from high flows of the Kern River, <a href=\"https:\/\/bakersfieldnow.com\/news\/local\/city-of-bakersfield-finishes-new-weir-on-kern-river-canal-to-manage-floods-boost-safety\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">a weir in west Bakersfield is now operational again<\/a>, reducing the risk of floods. Officials celebrated the reopening with a special ceremony, honoring engineer Richard Meyer, who played a key role in the project.<\/p>\n<p>The weir, located just east of Coffee Road off Truxtun Avenue, had been non-functional since 2023. Bakersfield Mayor Karen Goh attended the event, expressing her satisfaction with the project.<\/p>\n<p>Meyer, who has been working on water projects for over 50 years, designed the weir and said it went as smoothly as most of his projects.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So this weir acts as a river dam to back up the water so the water can be diverted through what we call the river canal, out west and to other agencies,&#8221; Meyer explained.<\/p>\n<p>The new structure, which cost about $5.5 million with $1.3 million funded by grants, features automated gates to efficiently manage water flows and reduce flood risk. It also includes a path for bikes and pedestrians to cross the Kern River. Daniel Maldonado, the city&#8217;s assistant water director, provided the financial details.<\/p>\n<p>Officials surprised Meyer with an award, acknowledging his leadership in numerous Kern County projects.<\/p>\n<p>Meyer expressed his gratitude, saying, &#8220;That speaks to the graciousness of city staff, particularly city water. They\u2019re a wonderful team. It\u2019s terrific working with them. They know what they need. They know how to operate this river well. And so the accolades really belong to them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Richard Meyer, left, stands with his son Aaron Meyer of Meyer Civil Engineering after the ceremony.{ }(Steve Virgen, KBAK\/KBFX)\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/82449d84-5a53-4145-bfd4-62a2231daa2a-Image2.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Richard Meyer, left, stands with his son Aaron Meyer of Meyer Civil Engineering after the ceremony.{ }(Steve Virgen, KBAK\/KBFX)<\/p>\n<p>Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n<p>BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT<\/p>\n<p>The project was more than five years in the making, marking a significant milestone for Bakersfield and Kern County.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After suffering water damage from high flows of the Kern River, a weir in west Bakersfield is now&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-16865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}