FM Area Diversion September Construction Update

Tom Fuchs (Senior Construction Manager): [00:00:01] Hi, I’m Tom Fuchs, the senior construction manager for the Metro Flood Diversion Authority with this month’s project update.

[00:00:10] ASN Constructors teams have continued to dig down to excavate the stormwater diversion channel while building up to construct the bridges that will cross over it. In reach 10, which is just south of I-94, crews are placing excavated material for the non-embedded levee which must be constructed in warmer weather. Levee construction is also the focus in reaches 11 and 12.

[00:00:57] Further south in reach 13 of the channel, south and west of Horace, North Dakota, crews are digging the main channel and placing the excavated material in berms on both sides. Close to another 2 million cubic yards of the necessary 45 million were moved in the past month, bringing channel excavation to about 57% completion.

[00:01:28] Work also continues on many of the 19 channel crossings. At County Road 20, ASN Constructors started early to pour approximately 700 cubic yards of concrete needed for the bridge deck. North of there at the County Road 22 crossing, bridge girders are now installed.

[00:02:24] Northeast of Argusville, North Dakota, near the diversion outlet, ASN Constructors is working toward completion of the combined County Road 4 and 31 crossing. Crews have now backfilled both abutments including installing geofoam, a lightweight fill material that mitigates settlement, and they are beginning to construct the concrete approach slabs.

[00:03:11] West of the metro area on I-94, bypass lanes are now fully constructed and will be ready to open before winter. ASN has completed mainline pavement removal and constructed portions of the required grade raises for the new crossings.

[00:03:46] Over at the Maple River Aqueduct, where the river rather than cars will cross over the channel, ASN has continued constructing segments of the concrete flume base and has begun form work and concrete placement for the first portion of the north flume wall.

[00:04:28] At the Red River Structure, Ames Construction is nearing completion of concrete work for the control structure. The US Army Corps of Engineers contractor also began driving sheet piles and H-piles as well as placing concrete at the flood walls east and west of the structure. Crews also began excavating and stockpiling roughly 460,000 cubic yards of impervious fill east of the Red River on the Minnesota side of the project. This material, which is enough to fill the US Capitol Dome more than nine times, will be used to construct the embankment that will cross the Red River after the river is permanently diverted through the structure in 2025.

[00:05:24] A Corps contractor has also been working on the Oxbow-Hickson-Bakke ring levee. Hendrickson Transportation has completed more than a mile of the inspection trench. They’ve also completed about 3,000 of the 11,500-foot-long embankment using excavated material from the north borrow pond.