It took more than 200 trucks and nearly 14 hours to place nearly 2,300 cubic yards of concrete at the Red River Structure, south of the Fargo, North Dakota/ Moorhead, Minnesota Metro Area, May 5.
The concrete placement, one of the largest in the Fargo Moorhead Metro Area history, was needed to build a 10-foot-thick structure slab, which will serve as the foundation for the structure.
Mat Andersen, civil engineer and contracting officer’s representative for the Red River Structure, said the structure is the final one of three to be built by the Corps to ultimately divert flows around the metro area and reduce the flood risk. Andersen said the 2,300 cubic yards of concrete is the equivalent to more than 10 miles of sidewalk that is 3.5 feet wide. He said the the entire project, once complete, will reduce the flood risk to nearly 260,000 people and 70 square miles of infrastructure in the communities of Fargo, Moorhead, West Fargo, Horace, and Harwood and will save the nation money by reducing the risk of having to respond to a flood within the communities and the potential flood damages.
“I’m from the Fargo/Moorhead area, and I’ve spent many springs in the past when I was in high school getting let out of school to help sandbag, to help the local community’s flood fight,” Andersen said. He added that it’s a good feeling to deliver this project to the local community and take away the fears of the annual flood threat. “We’re taking that uncertainty away and providing long-term protection to the community where springs can come and go without the constant worry of flooding,” he said.
Duane Perkins, structural engineer and technical lead for the project, echoed Andersen’s comments about the importance of the project in reducing the flood risk within the communities. Having went through the Red River of the North flood in 1997 in his hometown of Breckenridge, Minnesota, Perkins said he understands it on a personal level to know what a flood can do to a community. “We lost our house in that flood,” Perkins said. The flood waters devastated many river towns like Breckenridge; Wahpeton, North Dakota; Fargo; Moorhead and Grand Forks, North Dakota; and East Grand Forks, Minnesota. With projects in place to reduce the flood risk in many of these communities, the Fargo/Moorhead Metro Area remains one of the last areas to have a permanent flood risk management project.
Perkins said that the importance of the Fargo/Moorhead project to him means that people will no longer have to volunteer to fill sandbags for weeks on end. “If this community were to flood, people would potentially lose their jobs. Schools would close and it would take years to rebuild,” he said. “How would people provide for their families? That is a whole other level of stress that will hopefully be taken care of with the completion of this project.”
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| Date Taken: | 06.12.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 06.13.2023 14:42 |
| Story ID: | 447062 |
| Location: | FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA, US |
| Web Views: | 304 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, A major concrete placement marks another milestone for the Red River Valley, by Patrick Moes, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
