FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP): Officials say work has been completed in northeastern Indiana on a nearly 2-mile-long earthen berm designed to keep Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources have overseen the $4.4 million project at the Eagle Marsh Nature Preserve near Fort Wayne for the berm averaging 7 feet high.

It is designed to block floodwaters and prevent carp from crossing from the Wabash River watershed into the Maumee River watershed, which empties into Lake Erie at Toledo, Ohio.

Eagle Marsh is considered the second-most important spot, after the Chicago Area Waterway System, for stopping the voracious invasive species from reaching the Great Lakes. The berm has been planned since 2014 and construction work began last fall.