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Gates open on Red River flood control for Fargo area • North Dakota Monitor [1]
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Date: 2025-08-07
Officials on Thursday marked a milestone in flood protection for the Fargo area, with water from the Red River flowing through part of a channel designed to send floodwaters around the city.
The 30-mile Red River diversion is scheduled for completion in 2027 to protect the Fargo area’s more than 260,000 residents from flooding.
Thursday’s event took place at a dam near Horace, south of West Fargo. Officials had planned to remove plugs in berms that were keeping the Red River from entering the channel around the control structure, but recent heavy rains caused the river to top the berm, filling the channel. Instead, officials opened gates on the dam to mark the rerouting of the river.
The $3.2 billion project includes $850 million from the state of North Dakota and $750 million in federal funds. The control structure alone used $115 million of the federal funds.
The Red River Control Structure includes three 50-foot wide by 52-foot tall steel gates, each weighing nearly 300,000 pounds, according to a news release from Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D.
It is the largest of the three gated structures on a 22-mile earthen embankment.
“This has been a tremendous undertaking, requiring us to bring in partners from across all levels of government and from the private sector, but now, we are seeing tremendous results as the very heart of the project, the Red River Control Structure, is brought online,” Hoeven said.
North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong applauded the cooperation on the project with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The diversion also improves flood protection for Moorhead, Minnesota, with Minnesota Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith taking part in the ceremony.
“Not since the opening of Garrison Dam in 1953 has a river of this size been intentionally rerouted through a manmade structure in North Dakota,” Armstrong said. “What is happening here today is beyond impressive, moving our state’s largest metro area one giant step closer to a more secure and prosperous future.”
The project has had some detractors. During floods, the dam could create a reservoir on farmland to the south of the north-flowing river.
Cash Aaland is an attorney who lives in an area that could be flooded. He said the dam was added to the diversion project to protect farmland near Fargo for possible future development at the expense of landowners who are being forced into the reservoir area.
He has joined with other attorneys to help fight for fair compensation in the area impacted by the diversion.
He said the group has settled about 30 cases where the Metro Flood Diversion Authority has used eminent domain to obtain easements on property that could be flooded by the dam. He said the group is still working on more than 50 cases.
North Dakota Monitor Deputy Editor Jeff Beach can be reached at [email protected].
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