With Iowa River levels back to normal and favorable weather conditions forecast, the University of Iowa is in full flood-protection de-escalation mode — removing HESCO walls and other barriers in time for students’ return to campus next month.UI crews and contractors are in the midst of tearing down the massive earth-filled HESCO barriers they erected earlier this month as the Iowa River swelled and threatened to top the emergency spillway at Coralville Lake for only the third time in history.