When a River Runs through It, You Need to Move It

The Red River which serves as the border between Minnesota and North Dakota has a history of flooding, causing billion dollars in damage. The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), along with other federal/state/local resources, embarked on a fast-tracked project to mitigate future flood damage—“Fargo Moorhead Area Diversion Project.” The critical purpose of this project is re-routing flow around the Fargo/Moorhead area via the construction of 30-mi channel that ranges from 200- to 300-ft wide. Before the channel was to be constructed, there were 107 utilities identified that conflicted with the channel. The majority of these utilities (gas, communication, electric, and water) were re-routed under the proposed diversion channel alignment via horizontal directional drilling. Combining some utilities and adding a few new ones—it was determined that 36 drills were required. This paper is a review of the process and installation of the relocated utilities.