(upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to Prairie Pulse.

Coming up later in the show, we'll hear music from Dakota Pro Musica.

But first, our guest.

Joining us now is Kris Bakkegard, the director of Engineering for the Metro Flood Diversion Authority.

Kris, thanks so much for joining us today.

- Happy to be here thanks, thanks for the invite.

- You know, as we get started, tell the folks a little bit about yourself and maybe your background.

- Yeah, just real quick, I'm lifelong North Dakota resident.

Grew up about an hour west of here in Valley City, North Dakota.

My wife and I have lived here in the Fargo area since 1997.

We have two sons who also currently live here, here as well.

- Well, you're here today to talk about flooding, so to speak, but let's talk about the Fargo Morehead Diversion Project.

Been on a subject matter for quite a few years and still is a massive undertaking.

Tell us about, you know, you know, what is it, how long will it take?

Just tell us about the project.

- Sounds good.

Yeah, it's certainly a massive undertaking is a very good, very good frame for this project.

You know, as, as most folks know, the FM diversion project is set to provide permanent, reliable flood protection for the entire metro area.

Work is going around the clock on many areas of the project.

Again, our goal is to be ready to operate.

If we were to have a spring flood in 2027, this last year, 2023 was our biggest construction year to date.

We anticipate 2024 will be even, even bigger as far as the amount of work being done and, and the areas of the areas where work is happening, will, will expand even further than, than what they've, where they've been so far.

- Well, yeah, I know we're gonna talk about different groups, but what, what's your role as Director of engineering on such a project?

- Sure and, and maybe I'll certainly cover that.

Maybe I'll start with just kind of what the DA does and what our role is in this whole project too.

You know, the Metro Flood Diversion Authority is a permanent political subdivision in North Dakota.

We will exist to oversee the operations and maintenance of the project.

We're also building the project with partners, the US Army Corps of Engineers, far cities of Fargo, Cass County Moorhead, Clay County, and Regional Water Boards.

And again, you know, far as my role, my role as the main technical lead on the project project is to oversee with the help of a very strong team, all of the consultants, the work products that make providing or that make permitting, design, construction and operation of the project possible.

- So what, can you talk a little bit about the various funding mechanisms?

I know people have talked about, you know, there's state money, there's federal money, and how this is a huge number for this project to get done.

- For sure.

Yeah as you can imagine, the finance plan for this is quite complex.

You know, kind of to boil it all down, you know, first and foremost, I think the, the biggest, most positive part of the funding is, is the local sales tax.

You know, obviously all of us who are residents of Fargo and Cass County voted those sales taxes in.

I think it definitely spoke to their community, recognizing the need to provide this permanent and reliable flood protection.

Again, couldn't wouldn't be here without the help from the state and federal funding.

So certainly thank our state and federal partners for coming to the table with, with a large amount of funding as well.

You know, kind of the final crux of our federal funding.

We received a large allotment to finish off all our federal funding with the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

So that was a great, a great benefit for our project.

In addition to the, the funding sources, we also were able to secure some very good low interest loans as a part of the project.

The largest of those being what's called a WIFI alone or the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan.

And that's through the Environmental Protection Agency.

Again, we're able to secure rates low around 2%.

So we've got lots of great financing in place and have been able to weather some of the recent volatility, volatility in the markets by having those, those funding secured and in place and, and ready to implement our project as we go.

- Is there an estimated total project cost number out there?

- You know, we, we use roughly around 3 billion when you put in all of the, you know, the upfront costs and the construction costs and, and obviously we'll have some additional operations and maintenance costs that'll come as we get further down the road.

But yeah, the 3 billion number is where we sit with the, with the total project costs.

We're tracking on with that right now.

- Will this theoretically protect Fargo Morehead from flooding forever?

- You know, the diversion projects definitely, provides a lot of flexibility.

So that's definitely where we sit today.

Again, you know, our, our project goals are to provide permanent reliable flood protection up to a hundred year event.

You know, and I think for perspective, just to look at, you know, as we've studied the data from throughout history here in the valley, you know, we looked at the 2009 event, you know, it was often called a roughly a hundred year event.

When you put all the statistics together, the way we're designing our project, a 2009 flood ended up to be closer to a 50 year event.

So again, when we talk about a hundred year protection, that's an even higher level of protection than what we had for fighting a flood of 2009.

And then again, our, our secondary goal is to provide a, a project that we can fight a flood up to that 500 year level, you know, which is significantly higher.

Again, we need to do some additional measures in certain areas and provide a small amount of, of intermediate flood protection and kind of emergency flood measures.

But we'd still be able to operate our project and keep the community safe all the way up through that 500 year level.

So as things change in the future, we've got a lot of flexibility to adapt our project and, and still provide that level of protection that, that we've got in our goals.

- Of course, the Fargo Morehead is the name in it, but is West Fargo any other cities protected by this diversion?

- You know, the entire region, you know, to a level inside the protected area is certainly covered.

You know, as, as you know, in West Fargo, they've had their Cheyenne diversion in place for several decades.

That certainly provides them a great base level of protection.

I think the important note for the FM diversion is it just adds a layer of protection for an even greater flood than those a hundred year levels.

And I think that's the benefit that, that we see and that the city of West Fargo will see as well.

And, and other, other communities in the metro.

You know, again, just from a participation standpoint, West Fargo, mayor Bernie Dardis sits on our FM board and is also our finance committee chair.

So I, I know he has a strong supporter of the project and certainly, certainly understands and, and communicates the benefits to the entire region for the project.

- Yeah, you talk about baseline there, but can you talk about some of the baseline flood prevention improvements that have been made over the years along the Red River?

- Sure, you know, and, and discussions on flooding and needing to provide protection have been ongoing for, for decades in the metro and certainly even before the 2009 flood.

As we've been working on the diversion team to secure our funding and to get our, the more permanent project put in place, both the cities and the counties around the metro have been working hard to, to build up intermediate protections that are, that are coming together with our project.

Again, at the end of the day, the cities of Fargo and Morehead will construct about 40 miles of interior levees and flood walls.

They'll do improvements and or replacements for 40 storm water lift stations along the river that provide, again, that, that protection from storm water, be able to evacuate storm water if we got rain during a, during an event.

And again, all that allows us to pass that 37 feet of water through pro through town before we operate, which again, our operation is set about a 5% annual chance of flooding each year, or a 20 year flood event before we ever have to operate our project.

So the cities are very well protected up to that point to, to help us secure.

So they've been working on that as we've been working on developing our project as well.

- Hmm, so with your project, how much dirt or volume of dirt, however you judge it, has been moved so far?

- You know, we, we've got two different programs, so I'll kind of give you an overview of both.

But on the channel side, which is a 30 mile stormwater channel, our constructors there, ASN constructors, our Red River Valley Alliance have moved over 17 million yards of clay so far on the US Army Corps of Engineers side.

They, they've moved over 2 million yards of clay.

They've done work on two of the seven reaches for the southern embankment that protects the, the metro from the incoming water.

They've also raised segment of I29 and they've been working on their three large gated structures.

So when you look at that, you know, you think about 20 million yards, it's kind of hard to put in, wrap your head around, if you will.

I think to put that in perspective, if that 20 million yards would fill the Fargo dome over nine times.

So they've been definitely moving, moving dirt at a, at a very fast pace.

We're about a third done with, with moving dirt on the project as of the end of last year, and looking forward to being even further along as we, as we continue here in 2024.

- So how many companies or contractors are working on this project?

And of course, I don't even know if you can count the people, how many are involved?

- Counting people is challenging.

Because it, it varies day to day depending on what all's happening.

But, you know, we've got, one of the fun parts for me on this project is getting to work with people from so many different areas.

You know, we've got companies from many local companies, regional companies, even international companies working on this project.

So you know, right now we roughly have about 50 construction, construction related companies working on the project.

You know, we also have many consultants and local technical folks that are working on the design, the engineering, some of the hydrology and environmental work as well.

But yeah, from a construction standpoint, we have over 50 companies that have been actively working on the project so far.

- Yeah, can you talk, I guess what we'll call a three legs on, on a stool, the in cities leg, the core of engineers, and then the P3 diversion channel.

The legs of it.

- Certainly, yeah, it's definitely an interesting delivery structure, different than what you would see in, in a lot of traditional work.

Probably the, the biggest innovation on this project was what, what we call the split delivery model and that, that created, created these legs, if you will.

The, the biggest, the biggest two pieces of that are the, are the US Army Corps of Engineers part where, where they're using the federal dollars and building the southern embankments, the three large gated structures and, and the piece that, that protects the city from incoming water.

And then we also have our P3 partner, the Red River Valley Alliance that's building the 30 mile diversion channel.

They're building that under a, what we call a P3 public private partnership arrangement.

That contracting mechanism allows them to have one large contract to design, construct, build and operate the diversion channel for now and then up to 30 years into the future.

And all of that is happening simultaneously.

In addition to that, we have the work that we talked about for the in town levees and flood walls and storm water lift station.

That work has been ongoing as well.

And we tie it all up in a bow in, in the spring of 27.

And I think, you know, a couple of things with this, you know, it's a first for a few things, this type of split delivery, this was the first project that was done by the Army Corps of Engineers under the split delivery.

It also was the first large P3 water management project done in North America.

So we've got a lot of folks interested in how the project's going, and it's gotten a lot of attention and also has been a very innovative project for hopefully advancing these types of projects across the, the US and into the future.

- Yeah, can you talk about some of the sacrifices being made by folks upstream and their interest and who are they and where?

- Certainly, yeah.

You know, as we talk a lot about the, our focus on the 260,000 or so people that are protected by the project, it certainly wouldn't be right not to mention those who have had to make some sacrifices for, for the good of the broader community.

You know, our approved project required purchasing property from numerous land owners along the footprint of the channel and along the southern embankment alignment as well.

And also, we need to purchase flow easements for the temporary storage of water upstream of Fargo during our operational events.

We're doing our best to ease this transition.

We know it's tough.

We've been providing an appraisal based payment for, for property, but we also providing local relocation assistance where needed ag producers in that upstream area who may have a higher potential to experience some flooding.

At times when we operate the diversion, we'll be protected through a crop insurance program, several crop insurance programs that we're creating and, and have those ready to implement by 27.

You know, despite all that, we certainly know that we all have emotional ties to our homes and to lands that have been in our families for years.

We certainly owe these property owners a debt of gratitude for, for helping us protect the overall community.

- Hmm, what about environmental hurdles you've had to clear to be able to build it.

- You know, that that's been a, a major undertaking that started after the 2009 flood and has been an ongoing effort.

Those, those processes continue kind of the, the biggest study with the US Army Corps of Engineers did an environmental impact study that, that set the framework for the entire project.

We do operate under two primary construction permits, one from the state of North Dakota and one from the state of Minnesota.

Along with that, we've got over 200 other local and regional permits that we have in place, and we track on a, on a daily basis over 2000 different conditions for those permits to make sure that we stay in line with what we've agreed to and, and to help mitigate our project's impacts.

And also just to make sure we care for what's needed to kind of protect the environment from the overall construction process so.

- Well what about, I know just going back to when you first proposed, how much opposition was there?

- You know, early on I think there was a lot of folks that, that questioned the need for the project and, you know, kind of is it really what was necessary?

So there was a lot of, a lot of very good discussion back then about what options maybe should be and, and could be implemented.

You know, I think as we've gotten further into construction now and, and, and have settled in on a, on a final plan, we've certainly seen some of that opposition dwindle, but there, there certainly were, were some concerns early on and, and I think things that we worked through throughout that environmental process and the public involvement process early on in the project.

- What, what kinda work will be going on this, this coming spring and summer?

- Yeah, certainly we can, it's gonna be a big year.

I think, you know, a lot of folks are surprised when we tell them that, you know, we've been working 24 7 throughout the winter as well, primarily on the channel parts of the project.

They've been able to move clay all throughout the winter months.

Again, we certainly shift into a much higher gear as we approach the spring and summer.

We anticipate by, by the time we hit the early parts of the spring, the channel excavation will be nearing I94 area and then probably working through the summer, past 94 and into the south.

We will work on the bypass for I94 this coming summer.

So we'll have some similar traffic interruptions like we did up on I29 last summer.

As they build the bypasses that allows them to then build the new bridge structures over the channel and then return the, the traffic to their, to the normal routes.

We will have work on all 19 of our, our bridge structures going on this summer that includes both roadway bridges and railroad bridges.

They'll be working on over 13 river and drain inlets to allow water into the channel on the west side from a levee in town.

We have four new levee projects that will be starting up this summer to, to work to finalize the in town work.

The Corps of Engineers will start three new segments of their southern embankments this summer.

And then we also are planning to construct the final portion of the Oxbow-Hickson-Bakke levee that protects that community from the project operations for the areas west of County Road 81.

- Yeah, well we don't have a whole lot of time, lets, so just ask you, do you think this project is gonna be worth it in the long run?

- You know, absolutely.

I certainly have a vested interest in the role that I'm in to, to provide, provide that protection.

But I think, you know, thinking back to 2009, I was here and, and I worked on the 2009 flood fight and, and was helping the city of Fargo in that, in that effort and, and we came very close and to having, to having a catastrophic loss in 2009.

And I think, I also think back to 97 and the losses in Grand Forks, if you look at that, you know, that equates to about $6 billion in, in costs adjusted for inflation to today.

You know, that's double the price of what we're looking at for our project.

It also took decades for Grand Forks to recover from that.

So I think from a long-term benefit, we have 18 billion in property that is being protected by the project.

So it saves so much on the emotional stress of doing volunteering and fighting floods every year.

And also just the protection of all of our homes and property.

I think it's definitely, definitely worth it in the long run.

- You know, you, you mentioned 2027, I believe.

So do you, is the projection that you will finish on time?

- Yeah in, in finishing, you know, our term for finishing in the 27 timeframe is really getting the work prepped enough that we could fight a flood if we needed to.

There certainly will be some, some finishing work that goes on beyond that final seeding and final vegetation and some of those things.

But I think it's just important.

Yeah, the 27 timeframe is, is where we're, where we're locked into and we're, we're gonna be ready to, ready to fight a flood if we need to.

- Okay well, Kris, we are outta time, but if people want more information, where can they go?

Who can they contact?

- Absolutely the best place to go is to our website, fmdiversion.gov.

We can, they can sign up to for our newsletter there.

We also have many social media feeds, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter.

And our information's all, all out there as well.

- Well, thanks for joining us today.

- I'm happy to be here thanks again.

- Best of luck to you.

- Thank you.

- Stay tuned for more.

(upbeat music) Dakota Pro Musica is a music and performing arts organization that provides professional caliber performances and educational outreach programming to Bismarck and communities across North Dakota.

The primary ensemble is made up of musicians from across North Dakota.

(acapella music) Well, that's all we have on Prairie Pulse this week.

And as always, thanks for watching.

(upbeat music) - [Host] Funded by the North Dakota Council on the Arts and by the members of Prairie Public.