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Minot-area flood project advances

More work planned as some work nears completion

Jill Schramm/MDN The Fourth Avenue flood wall in place west of Third Street Northeast should be structurally complete next month. The wall will be continued in a future phase of the Mouse River Enhanced Flood Protection project.

Construction on the Enhanced Mouse River Flood Protection Project continues to advance around the Minot area, with some phases nearing completion.

Ryan Ackerman, administrator for the Souris River Joint Board, provided an update to the Minot City Council and Ward County Commission this week.

The Fourth Avenue flood wall, visible to travelers on Broadway or Third Street Northeast, snakes along the northern shore of the Souris River between the two thoroughfares.

“Work on the flood wall right now is expected to be complete, essentially, by August, with structural concrete work,” said Ackerman, who noted additional flood wall will be built to continue the wall east in a future phase of construction. Paving of Fourth Avenue is to be complete by October.

“Other major work that’s being completed on this phase of the project is focused around the Broadway pump station,” Ackerman said. “This facility is expected to be operational and substantially complete by November of this year. This phase of the project as a whole, Phase MI-1, is expected to be substantially complete by April of 2021, with final completion expected to be in June of 2021.”

The Napa Valley and Forest Road levee portion of the project, from the U.S. Highway 83 Bypass east, has the Dakota Bark Park reconstruction substantially complete, with the exception of some landscaping to be done before re-opening.

The greens on the Wee Links golf course have been re-established and the course has been turned back to the park district for maintenance, Ackerman said.

“We’re excited for this piece to get completed so we can essentially turn this facility over the park district and they can resume operation of the Wee Links golf course. Along 16th Street, work is primarily focused on getting that Wee Link’s parking lot rebuilt. There’s also a path that goes underneath the 16th Street Bridge that the contractors are working on,” Ackerman said.

Ackerman explained the path on the surface of the levee that has been completed will remain graveled until the Maple Diversion Project is finished. At that point, contractors will construct a shared-use path of asphalt on top of the levee.

Ackerman said SRJB has a few other phases that are fully designed and ready to construct, pending property acquisition. One of those phases is the western tieback or the Tierrecita Vallejo levee. A $20 million project, construction on the Tierrecita Vallejo levee could begin this fall. About 15 acquisitions have been completed and five are remaining.

SRJB has completed about 35 acquisitions, with about five remaining, in Burlington. The Burlington levee project has been split into two phases due to the continuing acquisition progress. Construction has begun on the south phase. The north phase will be bid when acquisitions are complete.

The SRJB is in the process of closing down the $12 million StARR Program, a rural program to acquire, relocate or dike properties as work there wraps up.

Yet this year, design work is planned for flood protection in the Eastwood Park area.

The 2019 Legislature appropriated $82.5 million to the Mouse River Enhanced Flood Protection Project through the State Water Commission for the 2019-21 biennium. Of that, $46.6 million was associated with activities inside Minot.

However, given COVID-19 and low oil prices, the state’s spending has been revised to reduce that appropriation.

“We’ve essentially reduced our budget by 40% or $33 million,” Ackerman said of the joint board. “How we’re doing that is basically deferring the construction of two phases of this project into the next biennium and counting on those funds being made available by the Legislature.”

Those two phases are the construction of MI-5, or the Northeast tieback located east of the Third Street bridge, which will defer $24.9 million of state funds, and part of the construction of WC-1, which is the Tierrecita Vallejo levee.

More information about the project can be found at mouseriverplan.com.

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