In response to the 2011 Mouse River flood, Barr and a team of subconsultants completed preliminary design for flood-risk-reduction system improvements throughout the river valley in North Dakota. Subsequently, the Souris River Joint Board selected Barr to provide detailed design, permitting assistance, and construction oversight for two system segments. Locally referred to as the Napa Valley and Forest Road levee segments, the contiguous sections comprise nearly two miles of flood-risk-reduction features and are part of the North Minot levee system, which will remove more than 60 percent of the structures from the city of Minot’s regulatory floodplain when complete.
The Napa Valley and Forest Road segments include 8,930 lineal feet of earthen levee averaging 14 feet in height; 7,450 feet of seepage collection trench; 1,600 feet of natural streambank restoration; four stream crossings of buried utilities; two interior pump stations with capacities of 45,000 and 6,000 gallons per minute; and one structural road closure. The project modifies an existing federal levee, requiring Section 408 approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Barr led development of a programmatic environmental impact statement for the urbanized reach of the project, for which a record of decision was entered in December 2017. Construction began in spring 2018 and was completed in fall 2020.
The second and third phases of the Mouse River Enhanced Flood Protection Plan received a 2020 Crown Community Award from American City & Country, a magazine about state and local government. These awards recognize innovative and impactful projects implemented by municipal and county governments.