Grand Forks’ South Ruckle dike project has reached a significant milestone.
“We’ve got big news – the South Ruckle dike is complete, providing permanent flood protection across the whole length of the river,” Flood Mitigation Project Manager Peter Novokshonoff announced at the Nov. 10 Grand Forks city council meeting.
The South Ruckle dike stretches from the rail line along the Kettle River. It’s reinforced with riprap and fitted with access ramps, fencing and hydroseeding for erosion control.
It was built in two phases to coordinate property agreements and environmental restrictions.
Novokshonoff said about 60 per cent was finished in May as part of the first phase, while the final phase was built in the fall.
“The reason for that phasing was to work with the private property owner and get an agreement, which we had in place in June. And just as soon as the bird-nesting window allowed for in the fall, we started working on this dike,” Novokshonoff said.
He said crews installed 198 metres of sheet piles quickly, followed by earth berm construction and restoration work at the south end near 62nd Avenue.
“That was all done in about nine days. Our very last 281st sheet pile went in nine days after we started. And from there we moved on to building our earth berm dike, which is the area of 62nd Avenue, the very south end of the project.”
Crews also repaired and repaved the community garden trail near the Black Train Bridge, which had been washed out during previous high-water events. The trail is now fully paved from the bridge to 10th Street.
New culverts were also installed to help manage mid-level flood flows.
“There are definitely floods that will still have some washout issues. The intent of the culvert is to help as much as we can with those in-between floods to show some flow,” Novokshonoff said.
With the dike construction finished, Novokshonoff said staff will now focus on managing stormwater and groundwater inside the protected area.
He said this work will include installing a new outfall structure at the end of 10th Street that includes two pipes through the dike with flap gates, and reshaped ditches along the rail line to help drain water to a pumping location at 7th Street.
“Even though the dike is there and protecting us from the river water, we still have groundwater coming up as well as rainwater coming from the sky. That’s the water that we’re dealing with in this next phase of work that we move into.”
The dike project budget increased by about $1.7 million since July to cover the final phase of construction. It was originally expected to cost about $5,509,846 to complete.
“That encompasses most of the phase two construction, so the completion of the dike is in there,” Novokshonoff said.
The flood mitigation team will also now focus on final documentation and right-of-way work, which Novokshonoff said will complete permanent tenure for the flood protection system.
“One of the substantial pieces of work left to do is to complete the statutory right-of-way final documents. So there will be additional survey work that will happen that seals everything up and gets those filed for the permanent tenure,” he said.
“We have basically a temporary tenure during the development of the program until all the completion reports are in.”
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