A steel curtain for safety is taking shape along Coyote Creek in San Jose.
Massive steel walls are going up along the South Bay waterway in hopes of preventing the kind of flooding that threatened lives back in 2017.
The walls vary in height from a few feet to 15 feet, depending on an area's vulnerability.
"That’s the primary objective of the project, to provide people flood protection of that 2017 February flood event," Santa Clara Valley Water District project manager Robert Yamane said.
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The steel walls will run along the creek from Old Oakland Road to Interstate 280.
In some cases, the walls will butt right up to homeowners’ property lines.
Valley Water said homeowners have been key to the project, so the agency said it's doing all it can to minimize disruptions.
"It's using unique technology to hydraulically press in the flood walls," Yamane said. "They’re steel flood walls that are being pressed into the ground. This is unique because we have a lot of residents in close proximity to the flood walls."
Valley Water said the technology minimizes the noise and vibrations people would normally see and hear on projects like this.
Flood victims said they're just glad something is being done.
"Happy that our taxes will go to something beneficial," flood victim Naomi Cortez said. "The taxes that they just take them away and don’t see progress."
