State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

To Fight Floods, North Dakota Moves Forward on $2.75B Plan to Siphon Off Rising Waters on the Red River

Governing: It's one of the biggest and most ambitious infrastructure projects in America right now: a $2.75 billion plan to build a new channel to divert flood waters from the Red River for 30 miles around Fargo, N.D., in order to save the area from future floods.

And it's politically an extremely complicated plan, involving officials from several local cities, two state governments, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and multiple private-sector partners. Fargo lies just across the river from Minnesota, so the proposal to change the flow of the river required the agreement of officials from North Dakota, Minnesota and the Army Corps, which actually manages the waterway.

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