The $1.2B Red River Water Project in N.D. is making progress as legal breakthroughs and strategic changes save time and money. The pipeline project aims to alleviate drought in the state by transferring Missouri River water eastward, with 18 mi. of the pipeline already laid. Despite weather challenges, the project is moving forward with the end goal in sight for completion in 2032.
Red River Valley Water Supply Project screenshot
A monumental water supply undertaking in North Dakota for which ground was broken three years ago is on track.
A monumental water supply undertaking in North Dakota for which ground was broken three years ago is on track.
In some respects, the project is even farther along than anticipated: A legal breakthrough shaved 40 mi. off what was intended to be a 165-mi. water-moving pipeline, saving hundreds of millions of dollars in future capital and operational costs.
Duane DeKrey, general manager of the Garrison Diversion Conservancy District, confirms things are moving along with the Red River Valley Water Supply Project.
"We haven't had any major issues. Things are pretty well in hand."
That is not to suggest that there haven't been challenges to date or that something untoward won't develop in the next eight years of laying pipe from central North Dakota to the drought-plagued eastern part of the state.
As the construction season closed down in December 2024, a total of 18 mi. of the 72-in. spiral-wound, concrete-lined and polyurethane-coated pipe had been buried at least 7 ft. deep along a path south and east of Carrington in central North Dakota. The pipe eventually will carry Missouri River water in a fairly direct line across the state and discharge most of it at a station south of Cooperstown on the Sheyenne River, which flows into the Red River basin.
Planning for the water transfer project began nearly 70 years ago as a federal-state project. Various ideas were trotted out and discarded over the years.
In one of them, a 74-mi. canal was constructed near McCluskey, fed by the Lake Audubon impoundment on the Missouri River. For several years, 59 mi. of the completed canal were utilized but never to capacity because of federal reluctance to guarantee access to the river water, plus Canada objected to untreated Missouri River water being diverted to the other side of the Continental Divide and into the Red River, which flows northward into Canada.
Such frustrations as that drove North Dakota officials to conclude that undertaking the pipeline without federal assistance was the best course. Today, the project is sponsored by the state and local users and is methodically moving forward.
More recently, DeKrey and other project officials boosted the undertaking significantly by convincing the federal government to allow the project to fully utilize the McCluskey canal. The upshot is that instead of the line originating at the Missouri River near Washburn and ambling north and east, the line now will take off from the canal and head due east, eliminating the first 40 mi. of pipeline construction. The water will be treated shortly after it leaves the canal and flows east, meeting Canadian officials' objections to untreated water.
Pulling from the canal not only shortens the pipeline, it also means that the water will need to be lifted just 200 ft. to get up and over the Continental Divide instead of 600 ft. from the level of the river. That translates into some $8 million savings in annual operating costs. It also means, of course, that a Missouri River intake, site development and wet well that was constructed near Washburn will not be needed.
Not to worry. DeKrey said the $20 million intake facility will be utilized in another way.
"Some in the legislature concluded that the intake structure would be a stranded asset after we went to the canal," he said. "I don't think that's going to happen. The city of Washburn already has plans to use the intake and three or four other cities and a power plant are looking at it. It's not going to be a stranded asset."
The project is still billed as a $1.2 billion undertaking, though that is in today's dollars. The final cost is likely to increase. The expectation as it got under way was that pipe-laying contractors would be able to average approximately 250 ft. a day, something on the order 1.5 mi. each month.
"We haven't hit that benchmark yet," DeKrey said. "We need to average 13 miles a year. If the weather cooperates, that is doable."
In fact, he expects some 16 mi. of pipe to be laid next year. That expectation is keyed partly to the weather.
In 2024, the construction area received some 30 in. of rain, about twice the usual amount.
"That was good for the ag economy but was not good for construction," said DeKrey.
Kansas City, Mo.-headquartered Garney Construction was particularly impacted by the rainfall, according to DeKrey, encountering excessive ground water in low areas in the 10-mi. segment it contracted to build.
"They had tough ground."
Because soils in North Dakota tend to be alkaline and, thus, a threat to the longevity of the pipe being installed, contractors lay the pipe in friendly soils hauled in from elsewhere. Topsoil and subsoils down about 4 ft. are removed and piled nearby. Any dirt deeper than that is hauled away and an equal amount of aggregate and sand hauled in to place directly around the pipe. The exchange usually amounts to 3 to 4 cu. yds. per ft. of pipe. When cuts are deeper than 7 ft., of course, the soil exchange is greater.
Most of the contractors' pieces of heavy equipment moving all this dirt are 150,000 to 200,000-lb. hydraulic excavators powered by 400 to 500 hp diesel engines, like Caterpillar 347 and Cat 395 models and equivalent machines. They excavate the earth, then lift and place the 50-ft. long pipe segments. DeKrey said a Texas company, Oscar Renda Contracting, which will work a part of the line in 2025, has asked that the pipe segments be fabricated in 25-ft. lengths so that they can be handled by smaller trackhoes.
While most of the pipeline is being laid in open excavations, some lengths are being placed in bored tunnels.
"We had a crossing of a Canadian Pacific Railway line that we had to bore under and encountered rock. We had to bore even deeper to get underneath the rock."
The route of the pipe also zigs and zags somewhat to avoid wetlands and other sensitive ecological areas. Sometimes the ticklish environmental areas are bored under. Several intersecting creeks and some small rivers will be tunneled under as well, with all that specialty work undertaken by an Akkerman 780 boring machine.
Manholes are being situated in the line every 1,500 ft. or so. If possible, the manholes are placed on borders of sections or quarters for the convenience of landowners. To that end, sometimes the excavations are much deeper — some have been fully 25 ft. deep — so that the pipe reaches a border before a manhole is necessary.
This is an example of the state's efforts to work with property owners. Some 160 landowners are impacted by the line, almost all of whom have willingly worked with the project team.
"Project leaders have gone to great lengths to lessen the impact on individual property owners," said DeKrey.
The northern clime restricts the length of the working season, of course. In 2023, winter temperatures arrived in early October, but last year, crews kept working through all of October and November. Contractors worked through this winter hauling in the aggregate and sand that surrounds the pipe and will begin to excavate again in May or June. DeKrey said that class 7 aggregate is used so as not to compete with local townships for class 5 aggregate needed for roads.
Funding and weather are the two critical factors in determining how fast the Red River Valley Water Supply pipe will disappear into the ground. While the weather is pretty much out of anyone's hands, DeKrey feels good about continued funding of the project by legislators.
"We have about eight years to go if the legislature keeps us on the same path we're on. The state is in the best financial shape it has ever been in, and we have not gotten any indication that the project is not going to continue to be fully funded."
The project manager is in a position to know. He has pretty good sources in the capitol, having served in the state house and senate a total of 20 years.
"I understand state government pretty well and that has come in handy," he said.
As a former longtime farmer in the state, he also understands the concerns of the landowners whose properties are being crossed. He seems perfectly credentialed to bring home the project.
Does he expect to still be managing it when it is completed in 2032?
"Well, I'm going to try to be around. I'm 69 and my board is happy with my work. I'd like to see water come out the other end of the pipe." CEG
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