January 30, 2023

Faces of the Diversion: Matt Pollert

The FM Area Diversion project incorporates numerous components that will work together to prevent damage from catastrophic flooding. Matt Pollert, with Industrial Builders Inc., talks about the work his team is doing on I-29, where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contractor is raising a 4.2-mile stretch of interstate out of the floodplain. More than just a construction project, it is a harbinger of something Matt is ready to leave in the past: sandbagging and the loss that comes with it when those sandbag dikes fail.

Transcript: Faces of the Diversion – Matt Pollert

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Matt Pollert: [00:00:13] My name is Matt Pollert. I’m a construction superintendent for Industrial Builders, and I’m currently working on the I-29 grade raise project.

[00:00:20] The project entails raising I-29 since it will now be in a floodplain on the south end so it does not flood, and then also allowing the water from the Red River to head west to get over to the diversion inlet.

[00:00:37] On the ground we have our dirt work equipment operators working. We have carpenters, laborers, concrete guys, flat work trades, erosion control, asphalters… When we were running strong this summer we had just over 140 people per day working. What I do is I line up the contractors and the trades work to get the job built correctly, safely, and on time. We started last year in May of 2021, and we’re shooting to be completed by the end of next year, so January 1 of 24.

[00:01:23] I’ve been from Fargo, born and raised here. I’ve seen the floods, I’ve fought the floods. This will make sure that doesn’t happen again. In ’97 I remember fighting sandbagging for a friend and over those two weeks actually losing the house as we started off with a one-foot dike and it just kept changing.

[00:01:52] And in ’09, which was our worst flood that I don’t ever want to see again, I was doing a large part of the work for Cass County and there were times there I didn’t think we would be able to get it done. Well, we did.

[00:02:08] The project matters because I’ve grown up here for 47 years and this is my stomping ground. I’ve fought all the floods since ’97 and to not have to do that again is going to be a pretty big deal.