Phases 2 & 3 of Mouse River Plan - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

Phases 2 & 3 of Mouse River Plan

The State Water Commission has ordered preliminary engineering for what's called Phase Two of the Mouse River Enhanced Flood Protection project.
Meeting this afternoon in Bismarck, the commission voted to award 1-point-8 million dollars to Barr Engineering and Ackerman-Estvold Engineering to study flood control for areas not covered by the initial flood control plan that was unveiled at the end of February.

(Tim Fay - ND SWC)"We get especially in the complex areas of downstream from Velva, where we have steep reaches, flat reachers, meandered rivers, all kinds of different issues. We really need to look at the whole hygrograph there, look at erosion potential and guage the things we can do based on that."

The Water Commission also voted to award nearly 100-thousand dollars to the same engineering firms to answer questions from government agencies about the flood control project.  State Engineer Todd Sando says cities such as Minot have many questions about the project that go beyond the scope of the original contract with the engineers.
Barr Engineering and Ackerman-Estvold Engineering were paid 2-and-a-half million dollars for the first flood plan released in February.
That plan estimated that total engineering costs if the entire project were built would exceed 50 million dollars.
The State Water Commission also gave Ward County permission to make offers to another 27 property owners, in addition to more than 100 that were okay 'd earlier.
The county estimates another 8.8-million-dollars would be needed for the new batch of buyouts.