CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO - Repairs to the Birds Point levee are being temporarily halted after someone sent a protest letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The corps says it received the letter a week ago from A & M Engineering and Environmental Services., Inc., of Tulsa, OK, protesting the contract to reconstruct the southeast Missouri levee, which was intentionally breached last year. A & M is protesting the award based on the type of contract selected by the government and the government's evaluation of their proposal.

The agency awarded three companies $20 million in contracts last month to Harold Coffey Construction Co. of Hickman, KY; Young's General Contracting, of Poplar Bluff, MO; and Kingridge Enterprises Inc. of Little Rock, AR. Work now must be stopped until the corps reviews the protest and issues a decision.

The corps used explosives to blow the levee last spring to keep Cairo, IL and other river towns from flooding. The tactic lowered the water level on the Mississippi River but inundated 130,000 acres of farmland. Several dozen homes were also flooded.