USACE photo by Patrick Moes

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, rerouted the Wild Rice River through the Wild Rice River Structure. Rerouting the Wild Rice River was a major milestone for the Fargo, N.D./Moorhead, Minn. Flood Risk Management Project. After three years of construction, Ames Construction Inc. permanently diverted the Wild Rice River through a gated concrete structure, a project first. This reroute will allow Ames to complete construction of a dam embankment across the existing Wild Rice River channel.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, awarded a $42.2 million contract to R.J. Zavoral & Sons Inc. of East Grand Forks, Minn., on March 11, to complete the Southern Embankment Reach SE-2B portion of the Fargo, N.D./Moorhead, Minn., Metropolitan Area Flood Risk Management Project, also known as the FM Area Diversion.

The Southern Embankment Reach SE-2B portion is in Cass County, N.D., and consists of an embankment that will extend from the existing Reach SE-2A near Horace to the Wild Rice River structure, both of which are currently under construction.

The total length of the embankment is approximately 4.1 mi. The embankment material will come from the borrow ditch adjacent to the embankment. The project also will include two road crossings (at County Road 16 and 45th Street South); utility relocations; a temporary weir adjacent to the Wild Rice River Structure; and temporary flap gates at County Road 16.

This is the fourth of multiple contracts planned to construct the embankments associated with the southern embankment. This congressionally authorized project is a 30-mi.-long stormwater diversion channel in North Dakota with upstream staging. The plan includes a 21-mi.-long southern embankment; several highway and railroad bridges; three gated control structures; and two aqueduct structures.

The Corps 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 nearly 260,000 people and 70 sq. mi. of infrastructure in the communities of Fargo, Moorhead, West Fargo, Horace and Harwood.

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