Delivering flood protection in the U.S. Midwest with an innovative funding model
North Dakota is second only to the state of Louisiana when it comes to inland flood risk in the U.S., and protecting people, homes, businesses and property from the flooding of the Red River is critical, especially with the risk of serious floods growing.
A record-setting flood in 1997 crested at nearly 40 feet and caused $3.5 billion in damages in the Red River Valley, where the Fargo, North Dakota, and Moorhead, Minnesota, metropolitan area is located. In 2009, that record was broken with the Red River cresting at 40.82 feet and the City of Fargo was nearly lost.
Plans to offer permanent flood protection for the 265,000 residents in the Fargo-Moorhead metropolitan area, located in the Red River Valley region of southeastern North Dakota and west-central Minnesota, became even more critical.
Scheduled for completion by 2027, Jacobs serves as program manager and public-private partnership (P3) advisor for the Fargo-Moorhead Flood Diversion Project. A $3.2 billion program spanning more than a decade, our team also supported the establishment of the organization and governance for the Metro Flood Diversion Authority (MFDA), the governing authority created for and managing the Fargo-Moorhead Area Diversion.
The Fargo-Moorhead Flood Diversion Project adds 25 miles of levees, 3 massive water control structures and a 30-mile diversion channel designed to store and then reroute flood water around the Fargo-Moorhead community. A series of downtown levee and pump station projects, bridge raises and other infrastructure also is included, providing the community with permanent protection from annual flooding.
A P3 first
Applying an innovative, first-of-its-kind funding and implementation model, Jacobs, in collaboration with local leadership, worked to develop scenarios and economic options for the MFDA to overcome funding challenges and keep the project on track.
Jacobs facilitated this delivery approach by working with bipartisan members of Congress to create the first-ever public-private partnership program for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and supported the Fargo-Moorhead Flood Diversion Project to become its first pilot.
We worked with multiple administrations and Congress to secure more than $750 million in federal funding. In addition to the private-sector investment from the P3, project funding also includes local sales tax money, state money, U.S. Department of Transportation private activity bonds and a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loan.
The financing that brought the project to life also distinguishes it as the first flood resilience P3 in the U.S., and one of the first worldwide.
