Posted on June 22, 2021
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, is celebrating the Metro Flood Diversion Authority’s contractor selection of a public-private partnership today to the Red River Valley Alliance, Corporaciόn Acciona Infraestructuras S.L.
The P3 contract is the first public-private financing of a civil works project in the Corps of Engineers’ history. The Fargo-Moorhead Flood Diversion Project, in Fargo, North Dakota, and Moorhead, Minnesota, was the inaugural pilot project for the innovative funding concept. This accelerated solution significantly increases the speed to complete the region’s resilience to the annual Red River of the North flood threat.
“The implementation of this project using public, private partnership provides proof of concept and represents a new era in community-based infrastructure investment,” said Lt. Gen. Scott Spellmon, U.S Army Corps of Engineers commanding general. “The is a huge milestone for the Corps of Engineers, but an even bigger day for the more than 230,000 people and 70 square miles of infrastructure in the communities of Fargo, Moorhead, West Fargo, Horace and Harwood. This project is going to significantly reduce the annual risk that the river could damage or destroy their communities.”
The federal project is a 30-mile long diversion channel in North Dakota with upstream staging. The plan includes a 20-mile long southern embankment, 19 highway bridges, four railroad bridges, three gated structures, two aqueduct structures, several drop structures and an open culvert structure. Our goal is to complete this project as soon as feasible to both save money and reduce flood risk for the community. Provided there is funding, we anticipate being able to complete this project as early as 2027.
