Kansas City, Mo ? Five years after a devastating flood here killed 11 people, it’s unclear how much longer it might be before construction begins on a flood-control project that would protect both Kansas cities.

The flood-control project for Turkey Creek has been under study since 1989. The 15-mile stream has bedeviled the area, especially Southwest Boulevard, which runs through downtown Kansas City, Mo., and into Kansas City, Kan., with damaging floods since the mid-1800s.

The project was delayed after the Oct. 4, 1998, flood. The Turkey Creek flood basin — a 23-mile area that winds through Jackson County in Missouri and Wyandotte and Johnson counties in Kansas — was among the hardest hit.

At the time, John Grothaus, chief of planning for the Kansas City District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, determined the $42.3 million project that was planned wasn’t good enough, that it might have to start farther upstream.

Earlier this year, Congress voted to expand the project and increase the cost, but the bill did not provide startup funds for construction.

The plan includes deepening and widening Turkey Creek, replacing three bridges, building culverts and a 2,800-foot levee, and repairing an 84-year-old tunnel that carries the creek’s water from near Interstate 35 to the Kansas River.

U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, D-Kan., who pushed for the project’s authorization, said he was disappointed that construction funding was not included in the bill.

“Failure to secure timely funding in the future could reverse progress and increase the total cost of this project that is of vital importance to so many Kansans,” he said Friday.

He said he would ask Republican Kansas Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts to help secure funding as the Senate and House work on the bill in conference.

Five million dollars in local and federal funds already have been spent for planning and design. If construction funds are approved, the Army Corps of Engineers would bear 65 percent of the cost, with the two Kansas cities sharing the rest.

Although a smattering of private residences would benefit, the area is largely commercial and industrial, and the main goal is to protect development, which the corps has valued at more than $140 million.

While acknowledging “a reasonable sense of urgency and responsibility,” Grothaus said he was certain that relief for Southwest Boulevard was on the way.

Some affected by the flooding accept the delay. Unified Government spokesman Don Denney said the administration was eager to begin the project, but “we want to make sure it’s done and done right, and that it takes care of all the potential problems.”