The Souris River Joint Board has three phases of the flood project that are proceeding – MI-5, MI-6 and MI-7.

Phase MI-5 is the Northeast Tie-Back Levee, which is about a $55 million project beginning near the Third Street Northeast viaduct and continuing east to 13th Street Northeast. That work is expected to finish this summer. The construction remaining is primarily a stormwater pump station on the north side of the BNSF railroad tracks.

Project features include concrete floodwalls about 13 feet high, earthen levees, roadway changes as well as the pump station and a dry stormwater pond. Areas south of BNSF’s yard are slated for seeding to create natural green spaces, according to information from the Souris River Joint Board.

Phase MI-6 is the downtown levee that spans from Main Street North to the east along the railroad tracks and river, past Eighth Street Southeast, ultimately ending in Roosevelt Park. The cost of this phase also is about $55 million. The section between Main Street and Third Street Northeast will be bid once negotiations with BNSF Railway are completed, SRJB Administrator Ryan Ackerman said. The property includes three buildings owned by leaseholders with BNSF.

Submitted Photo The Roosevelt Park Zoo Discovery Barn is situated on its final resting pad after a move made in conjunction with construction on phase MI-7 of the flood protection project.

Work is expected to pick up again on this phase this spring, with completion in June 2028. Once completed and connected to the other finished phases, MI-6 will help remove downtown Minot from the proposed floodplain by providing protection to the record flood of 2011.

Phase MI-7 begins at Roosevelt Park and continues through Roosevelt Park Zoo. The zoo’s discovery barn has been relocated from the north side of the river to a new, permanent location near the Visitor Center.

The $45 million project phase will include levee and floodwalls. Initial items scheduled for this spring include relocating a 27-inch sanitary sewer, continued demolition and earthwork for the levee system. It includes a seepage cutoff wall – a deep trench excavated beneath the levee and floodwall, according to SRJB information.

The SRJB also has future phases in design.

The Maple Diversion in east Minot is under design now that talks with the railroads over the alignment have ended, and the city is beginning acquisitions. The federal government, through the Corps of Engineers, is providing about $65 million toward the estimated $100 million cost.

Submitted Photo Work on pre-consolidation piles occurs inside Roosevelt Park’s back entrances as well as prepping for a new lift station as part of phase MI-6 of the flood protection project.

Work on the Maple Diversion is anticipated to begin in 2026 and finish in 2030, Ackerman told Ward County commissioners in February. Once completed and tied into MI-1 and MI-4, it will remove 60% of Minot’s residents from the regulatory floodplain and complete the first milestone of the flood project.

The project entails constructing two river closure structures. Closing those gates would allow water to flow down the diversion channel and bypass the river during times of high river flow.

Other phases under design are MI-8 and MI-9.

MI-8 involves increasing the span of the Burdick Expressway bridge near the southeast corner of Roosevelt Park Zoo and realigning Burdick between 14th and 18th Streets Southeast. A larger bridge will allow more water conveyance. The roadway and bridge deck also will be elevated to keep that crossing open during a future flood.

Phase MI-9 will include the Valker Road levee from Burdick to near Eighth Avenue Southeast. Significant utility relocation also will need to occur. Phases MI-8 and MI-9 are expected to be ready to bid in 2026.

SRJB also is updating its master plan for the flood project, which serves as overall guidance to the project but now is more than 10 years old, Ackerman said. He explained the updates will involve refining alignments, conducting additional soils investigations and revising cost estimates.

The completion of construction of the current work on MI-6 and MI-7 as well as on MI-8 and MI-9 would achieve Milestone 2 of the flood project. Ackerman estimated Milestone 2 could be attained by the end of 2027 or early 2028.

Ackerman also estimates about four additional phases remain to be designed and built in Milestone 3. They will provide protection for the State Fair Center, Lowe’s Garden Center on Fourth Avenue Northeast and the Green Valley neighborhood, located southeast of the Clarion Hotel.

Ackerman said design on the final milestone could occur within the next three to four years, with the construction schedule contingent upon funding availability at that time.

“Our goal is to be done by 2035, but we understand that, based on appropriations, that may drag on. To get to 2035, there’d have to be pretty aggressive funding,” he said.

The final piece of the flood project will be the 27th Street Diversion, which will run from Souris Court in Green Valley and across 27th Street to tie back at the Souris River, south of Golden Nugget Mobile Home Park.

Early versions of what the flood project might look like in that area were devastating to Holiday Village, but the reevaluation over the last six months has surfaced a new alternative that would leave the bulk of that mobile home community intact, Ackerman said.

As design goes forward, the intent is to continue weighing the cost of building the project against the social disruption it can cause, he said.

“We try to strike that balance and minimize acquisitions, while at the same time making sure that we’re promoting or advancing a cost effective project,” he said.

TIMELINE

August 2017:

Federal Emergency Management and congressional representatives joined the city to cut the ribbon on completion of flood control features around the Minot Water Treatment Plant, built using a federal hazard mitigation grant.

March 28, 2018:

U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, Lt. Gov. Brent Sanford and Col. Sam Calkins with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers joined local leaders to ceremonially break ground on the first three phases of flood control in Minot, from the U.S. Highway 83 Bypass to Third Street Northeast.

June 25, 2021:

City, state and national leaders cut the ribbon on the completed phases of MI-1 and MI-2 phases in Minot during the city’s 10th anniversary celebration of flood recovery.

May 6, 2022:

The Souris River Joint Board held a ribbon cutting on Phase MI-1, Fourth Avenue Northeast and Broadway Pump Station, which were substantially completed in the fall of 2021.

August 2023:

The first wall pour occurred in Phase MI-5, west of Third Street, on the 2,450-foot-long concrete floodwall that will be built to connect into the existing wall from Phase MI-1.

Sept. 19, 2023:

The completion of the $40 million project to protect the community of Burlington was celebrated.