Major General Ed Jackson of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers visited Fargo and Moorhead recently to learn more about the FM Area Diversion Project.
Mr. Jackson, along with Mr. Let Mon Lee, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Legislation, met with local officials and attended a Flood Diversion Board of Authority Meeting.
“ We are continuing to push this project to try to meet the federal funding commitment that you are familiar with,” Mr. Jackson said. “This is a unique project. Never have we had a P3 project before. Never have we had a community that has stepped up like you have.”
Col. Sam Calkins of the St. Paul Army Corps office gave officials gave a brief update about the Corps work in recent months.
He noted that the Corps’ contractor has been moving and piling dirt south of Horace at the site of the future Diversion Channel Inlet and Control Structure.
“This is a split delivery project…with the federal government being responsible for the southern embankment and the control structures associated with that, and the Diversion Authority and the P3 contractor responsible for the Diversion itself along with the associated infrastructure; but the entire project is, I think pretty clearly, a federal project,” Col. Sam Calkins said.
Prior to the Board meeting, Army Corps officials had a chance to learn more about the Public Private Partnership, or P3, process being used to construct the diversion channel.