Second phase of Newfolden flood control project set to begin

Apr. 17—NEWFOLDEN, Minn. — Construction on the second phase of an $11.3 million project

to remove the city of Newfolden from the 100-year floodplain

will begin this spring, and a groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for 3 p.m. Thursday.

The second phase of the project involves constructing a 396-acre impoundment north of Newfolden to store water on the east side of U.S. Highway 59 and prevent overland flooding from Judicial Ditch 21 from entering the community. The first component of the project, replacing a series of culverts at a railroad crossing on the Middle River with a bridge to remove the bottleneck of water on the east side of Newfolden during flood events, was completed in 2023.

The Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway — formerly the Canadian Pacific Railway — oversaw that portion of the project, hiring its own contractor and managing the construction.

The impoundment being built this summer also will offset any peak flows downstream from Newfolden that result from the new railroad bridge.

HDR Engineering, a global company with a branch in Thief River Falls, designed the project.

According to Morteza Maher, administrator of the

Middle Snake Tamarac Rivers Watershed District

(MSTRWD) in Warren, Minnesota, funding to offset costs for the second phase of the project was in limbo after the 2023 Minnesota legislative session, but $5.45 million became available last summer through the Department of Natural Resources' Flood Hazard Mitigation Program.

That still falls short of project needs, Maher said, and the

Red River Watershed Management Board

has requested an additional $2 million for the Newfolden project as part of a $57.3 million request for bonding bill dollars to fund seven flood control projects in the Red River Basin.

Davidson Construction of Holt, Minnesota, submitted the low bid for the impoundment project, at $6.5 million, Maher said, and there will be additional miscellaneous costs such as relocating utility lines, land purchases or easements and purchasing wetland credits.

That's where the need for an additional $2 million comes into play, but the project will proceed as scheduled regardless of the outcome in the Legislature, said Bill Peterson, president of the MSTRWD.

If the Legislature doesn't allocate the $2 million, the MSTRWD will request funding from the Red River Watershed Management Board, Peterson said. The "Red Board," as it's informally known, covers an area managed by seven watershed districts within the Minnesota portion of the Red River Valley, including the Middle Snake Tamarac Rivers Watershed District.

"We're going to beg and plead with the Red Board" if necessary, Peterson said. "We've got all kinds of projects we can do, but this one — when you're starting to talk about people's homes and you're protecting their homes — it gets a higher priority. And that's what made this thing fly.

"It's been a long time coming, but we can see light at the end of the tunnel."

Other funding partners include the Minnesota Department of Transportation, the city of Newfolden and the state Clean Water Fund through the "One Watershed, One Plan" program, Maher said.

The need for the project dates back to 2016, when the Federal Emergency Management Agency as part of a nationwide digital mapping initiative designated the east side of Newfolden as lying within the 100-year floodplain. That meant the odds of the Middle River reaching the 100-year flood stage in a given year was 1 in 100.

The FEMA designation also meant homes and businesses on the east side of Newfolden had to have federal flood insurance, despite repeated attempts to appeal the ruling. The designation affected 43 homes, along with a church, a park, an apartment building, multiple grain elevator structures and property zoned for future development.

Completion of the flood control project will alleviate the need for affected home and business owners to buy flood insurance. The timeline for that will depend on FEMA's review process, Maher said, but it could be four months to a year.

"People will pay less on their property insurance, and the city will have the opportunity to grow," he said.

Most of the construction on the impoundment should be completed this year, Maher says, although the channel to the impoundment won't be opened until next year. That will allow vegetation to establish and make the project more resilient to any potential flooding situations, he said.

The impoundment also will have wildlife benefits, although natural resources enhancement wasn't the main reason for the project, Maher said.

"In our past projects, similar projects, we have seen that — and proved — that the natural resources have improved," he said. "All of these impoundments create some sort of natural habitat."