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Construction progress, environmental mitigation and land acquisition update for diversion project
Summary
Corps and authority staff reported progress on channel excavation, bridge girders, aqueduct work, environmental mitigation and ongoing property negotiations; some contracts remain in winter shutdown and bid awards are pending.
Representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Metro Flood Diversion Authority staff reported construction progress, environmental mitigation actions and continuing land‑acquisition work on Jan. 20.
Terry Williams, the Corps’ project manager, said gate‑machinery technical issues at the diversion inlet and Wild Rice structures are resolved and that machinery installation and commissioning are planned for early spring at the diversion inlet and later in summer for Wild Rice owing to river‑level dependence. He also said portions of I‑29 raise piece number 3 were partially turned over to the diversion authority on Dec. 20 for operations and maintenance and that O&M instructions have been provided to sponsors for review.
Authority construction staff reported continued channel excavation (the project has crossed 30 million cubic yards of excavation) with about five miles of channel becoming functional between the County Road 81 bypass and the outlet after removal of a plug near County Road 4. ASN Constructors set girders at 50 Second Avenue West and continues piling for railroad and bridge structures; piling work will continue as weather allows. At the Maple River Aqueduct, crews installed falsework and began forming the spillway foundation and embedded conduits for a low‑flow heating system intended to maintain river flows in winter.
On environmental and cultural monitoring, staff reported planting more than 3,500 trees to date (of an estimated roughly 20,000 planned) and seeding over 1,000 acres of native grasses in early reaches. Archaeological monitoring teams have performed limited excavations and, to date, no major finds requiring mitigation beyond agreed procedures were reported.
On property acquisition, staff reported 98.4% of construction footprint property rights acquired and ongoing eminent domain settlements; staff expect to forward roughly 15 parcel settlement agreements to the board in February for final approval. Minnesota property vacate dates referenced were April 1 for some counties and June 1 for others unless negotiated otherwise.
The board heard that several contracts remain in the award process, and that some bid results were significantly below independent government estimates on recent bid openings.
