The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), St. Paul District, awarded a $67 million contract to Industrial Builders Inc. of West Fargo, North Dakota, for the Fargo-Moorhead diversion project.
The goal of the project is to complete the I-29 grade raise portion of the Fargo, North Dakota / Moorhead, Minnesota, Metropolitan Area Flood Risk Management project.
This project consists of a grade raise of I-29 for approximately 4 miles to bring the roadway out of the 500-year flood elevation. The project extends from south of Exit 50 (Hickson Interchange) to north of Exit 54 (Davenport/Oxbow Interchange) and includes an up-and-over where I-29 crosses the southern embankment near the Wild Rice River, bridge construction and replacement, a temporary bypass, as well as work on adjacent county roads 18 and 81 in the vicinity of Oxbow.
This congressionally authorized project is a 30-mile long diversion channel in North Dakota with upstream staging. The plan includes a 21-mile long southern embankment, 19 highway bridges, three railroad bridges, three gated control structures, and two aqueduct structures.
“Raising the grade on I-29 is a major milestone on the path to constructing permanent flood protection in the Red River Valley and serves as the first step in building the Red River Structure, the most important federal element of this project,” U.S. Senator John Hoeven (R-North Dakota) said in a statement. “With the funding we’ve secured through Army Corps work plans in recent years, we are able move these critical efforts forward in a way that saves time and money, while also fulfilling nearly half of the federal funding commitment."
USACE is working in partnership on this project with the cities of Fargo and Moorhead and the Metro Flood Diversion Authority. This project provides flood risk reduction for more than 230,000 people and 70 square miles of infrastructure in the communities of Fargo, Moorhead, West Fargo, Horace, and Harwood.
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SOURCE: Metro Flood Diversion Authority / Office of Senator John Hoeven
