Residents had questions about timelines and how their lives might be disrupted during construction of the MI-8 and MI-9 phases as the project advances east and south from the Roosevelt Park Zoo. Only four residences are anticipated to be acquired in that area, based on design plans that are 60% complete. A section of commercial property along Burdick also would need to be acquired due to plans to shift the Burdick Bridge to the south while increasing its length, and its height by 13 feet.

The existing bridge would remain open during the construction, with closure necessary only while tying the new bridge in with Burdick Expressway, said Jerry Bents with Houston Engineering. The bridge also is to include pedestrian pathways.

Kristen Lotvedt with Houston Engineering said the design is under review by the North Dakota Department of Transportation and U.S. Corps of Engineers. The Minot City Council and Souris River Joint Board will review and decide on the alignment in July.

“Assuming we still get the funding for this, it’s going to be bid earlier next spring, with construction starting likely in ’26,” Lotvedt said.

Jill Schramm/MDN Jerry Bents with Houston Engineering uses a map to outline a future phase of the flood project to residents who asked questions at the start of a public meeting Thursday.

Bents said it is not expected that significant changes would be made during the reviews that are taking place.

“We are proposing the plan we are because we think it provides the most economic way of protecting this area, but it does come at some social cost,” he said. “We’re having to acquire some properties in order to build a levee.”

David Ashley, chairman of the joint board, said plans typically are solid when they reach 60% of design.

“We’ve looked at every alternative and vetted what we could to make it logical, both socioeconomic – we’re very conscious of that – as well as economic. I cannot see where the joint board would change it after working on it so hard for so long,” he said.

Bents assured residents that they would be informed if major changes to the plan are made. Certain changes, such as increasing acquisitions, would trigger another public meeting.

MI-8 and MI-9, estimated to cost $52 million to construct, is expected to remove about 15% of residents from the floodplain. The plan includes a levee, pump station, new sanitary and storm sewer and an emergency levee closure. Operation of the emergency levee would be infrequent, engineers said.

Residents had questions about existing features, such as dams, ponds river dead loops and a duplex that barely recovered from the 2011 flood. Neighbors were pleased to hear the duplex would be among the acquisitions.

Bents said the dead loops will remain because they can contain storm water and reduce the cost of pump station construction.

“When there’s a flood, we’ll pump down the dead loop some, let the storm water come in and have a smaller pump as a result of it,” he said.

There will be changes to dead loops in Oak Park and Nubbin Park, Bents added. He said those dead loops will be opened to allow low flow to flow back through them as a mitigation measure for other impacts the flood project will have on the river.

He also responded to residents interested in post-construction traffic changes to note no speed limit changes or traffic signal changes are planned. Separate from the flood project, residents indicated a desire for additional signage to control traffic flow in certain areas and for improved pedestrian access across Burdick near the zoo.