Diversion authority presents update; DNR recommends quarter‑mile buffer near southern embankment, authority and staff say easements largely restrict development

Eric Dodds, a consultant with AE2S working on the Fargo‑Moorhead diversion project, told Clay County planning officials the diversion is more than halfway complete and that the project team is finalizing a sixth version of its Property Rights Acquisition and Mitigation (PRAM) plan.

Dodds said construction progress slides show the project about 61% complete overall, with the P3 diversion channel about 56% complete, the Corps of Engineers’ southern embankment work about 68% complete and in‑town levee work roughly 80% complete. He said roughly 28,000,000 cubic yards of material have been excavated so far of an estimated 40,000,000 cubic yards total and that about 160 Minnesota parcels have had property rights acquired; upstream mitigation easements are “approaching 60% complete.”

The consultant described three major control structures on the southern embankment — the diversion inlet just south of Horace, the Wild Rice structure adjacent to…