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Diversion Authority reports first P3 milestone payment of $14.4M; construction progress shown in drone update
Summary
The authority made its first P3 milestone payment to RRVA for railroad bypass 'shoe flies' and staff presented ongoing construction progress, including aqueduct work, bridge substructures, and placement of control-structure gates.
Executive Director Mr. Benson told the Metro Flood Diversion Authority on March 27 that the authority made its first milestone payment to RRVA under the project's public-private partnership contract: $14,400,000 for construction of railroad bypasses known as "shoe flies." Benson described the payment as a project milestone under the P3 milestone-payment model, which pays contractors when "buildable units" pass completion checklists rather than on unit-price pay items.
Benson said the authority’s 2025 cash budget includes about $233,000,000 in projected payments tied to more than 25 billable units, including drainage inlets, channel segments and bridges. He emphasized the P3 milestone approach differs from typical road projects where contractors are paid incrementally for measured pay units.
Benson also reported a mid-April public meeting planned in Horace for Cass County Road 16 and 17 construction (a new roundabout and associated detours), and he updated the board on a Minnesota funding request. Benson said Representative Joy sponsored House File HF 2224, a bipartisan $60,000,000 bill with $16,000,000 for Moorhead lift stations and $44,000,000 for Clay County projects and watershed improvements.
U.S. Army Corps representative Chris Bockygard said federal work is now under contract and construction momentum is building; he reported channel excavation is concentrated in reach 12, and bridges and piling work are advancing. Tom Fooks, senior construction manager for the authority, narrated the drone update and reported crews placing concrete and driving piling, continued work on the Maple River aqueduct (including portions of an estimated 10,000 cubic yards of concrete) and that the third radial arm gate was installed at the Red River control structure, completing all eight control-structure gates.
Bockygard and construction staff also reported utility relocations nearing completion (about 90% reactivated on new lines) and that safety records showed only minor recordable events for the month. Benson closed his report by calling the first milestone payment to RRVA an important project milestone.
