Nov. 20 -- GRAND FORKS -- By the end of next year, the Vail Circle area of Grand Forks should be better able to handle rain events, thanks to ongoing upgrades to the neighborhood's storm sewer.
In the fall of 2019,
the area saw intense flooding after 5 inches of rain fell
on Grand Forks in a single storm. The storm sewers in the neighborhood simply could not handle the amount of water. The result was damage to many homes and basements. While improvements to stormwater capacity
in the neighborhood had been talked about even before 2019
, federal funding has now made the project a reality.
"A lot of these people in the Vail and Glen circles, even up here at Burger Time, they had feet of water in their basements," said Carmen Neuschwander, utility engineer for the city. "People are excited, are relieved; I talked to some of the people on these cul-de-sacs that don't leave their house in the summertime if it's going to rain because they're worried about flooding."
Work on the pump stations, which collect and regulate the storm sewer, began this year, but capacity improvements began in 2018 when a forcemain was relocated as part of the construction of the new Altru Hospital. The storm sewer in this neighborhood collects water from an area roughly between Columbia Road, DeMers Avenue, Washington Street and 13th Avenue South,
but some pump stations collect all the way down to 17th Avenue South.
The city had looked at numerous options on how to mitigate the stormwater capacity issues, from buying out owners to building ponds to the eventual solution of building a new pump station and a bigger forcemain.
"Some of (the owners) have been there since the homes were built 30 years ago," Neuschwander said. "That's why we went with the pump station route because we can get water out of there."
A portion of the project is being specially assessed and the cost of the project, estimated to be more than $10 million, has killed the project in the past due to the costs. Typically, sewer and water projects are 100% on property owners instead of the 80% city, 20% property owner cost split on road construction projects.
A significant portion of the project is being funded by North Dakota hazard mitigation funding through FEMA. The cost share is 90% federal, 3% state and 7% local but the federal funds are capped at $7.7 million so anything over is on the city. Unlike other special assessments, the ones for this project are based on the square footage of lots and not frontage. The special assessments range between $4,000 to $1,000 for the more than 1,100 properties in the district.
Work will likely be complete by the end of September 2025. The completion of the expanded forcemain and final costs will likely be before the Grand Forks City Council next month.