FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) _ A nearly 2 mile-long earthen berm through a northeastern Indiana marsh that's designed to keep Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes is nearly complete months after heavy rains temporarily halted the project.

The berm through the Eagle Marsh nature preserve is designed to prevent carp from crossing from the Wabash River watershed into the Maumee River, which empties into Lake Erie at Toledo, Ohio, during flooding.

Betsy Yankowiak of Little River Wetlands Project says torrential summer rains prevented a contractor on the $3.5 million project from doing earth-moving work inside the nature preserve that's near Fort Wayne.

But she tells The Journal Gazette (http://bit.ly/1LznOii) Indiana's dry autumn allowed crews to make quick progress and most of the remaining work involves seeding the expanded berm with native grasses and wildflowers.