ST. PAUL, MN — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), St. Paul District, awarded a $10.1 million contract to BCSS, LLC, of Tempe, Arizona, to complete the Southern Embankment Reach SE-5 portion of the Fargo, North Dakota/Moorhead, Minnesota, Metropolitan Area Flood Risk Management Project, which is also known as the FM Area Diversion.

This marks the last major USACE contract to be awarded for the completion of the Southern Embankment.

The Southern Embankment Reach SE-5 portion is in Clay County, Minnesota, and consists of the reconstruction of about 2 miles of 180th Avenue South from Highway 75 to just east of Wolverton Creek. The project includes removing portions of the existing road embankment and replacing it with a soil-cement mixture overlain by aggregate. This reconstruction will enable the road to withstand overtopping during extreme flood events. The work also includes replacing the existing concrete culverts through 180th Avenue South at Wolverton Creek.

This is the seventh and final contract planned to construct the embankments associated with the Southern Embankment. This congressionally authorized project is a 30-mile-long diversion channel in North Dakota with upstream staging. The plan includes a 21-mile-long southern embankment and three gated control structures.

USACE is working in partnership on this project with the cities of Fargo and Moorhead and the Metro Flood Diversion Authority. This project provides flood risk reduction for nearly 260,000 people and 70 square miles of infrastructure in the communities of Fargo, Moorhead, West Fargo, Horace, and Harwood.