The City of Halstad, MN, along with the US Army Corps of Engineers, first built a levee in the 1980s to provide flood protection from the Red River. Since the unparalleled flood of 2009 indicated an even greater need for flood protection, the Wild Rice Watershed District has partnered with the City to provide flooding risk relief for the city's residents.
The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) first built a levee for Halstad in the 1980s to provide flood protection from the Red River. After that time, the USACE inspected the levee annually. Over the years, the levee displayed deficiencies that needed to be corrected. FEMA also re-evaluated the floodplain in this region and determined that the levee would be de-certified, placing nearly 40% of the city back into the 100-year floodplain.
It was determined that the levee needed to be upgraded to keep neighborhoods out of the floodplain and avoid required flood insurance for the residents of Halstad. After the re-mapping, Houston Engineering, Inc. (HEI) began working with FEMA and the USACE to improve the levee system so flood insurance would no longer be required.
Once funding was secured from the State of Minnesota Flood Hazard Mitigation Program in 2013, design began on an earthen levee and other flood control components to reduce the risk of flooding. The construction contract was awarded in June 2018, and levee construction was completed in 2019. The existing levee operations and maintenance plan was also updated, and a new emergency action plan was put in.
Norman County, in cooperation with the Wild Rice Watershed District, is in the process of designing road raises east of Halstad to fully protect the community from future flooding. The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) completed road raises on Highway 75 in 2019 on the north and south sides of town. MnDOT and HEI were able to complete both projects (levees and the road raises) at the same time with no interruptions to either project.
The FEMA Letter of Map Revision was approved in 2021 and the city was officially declared out of the 100-year floodplain.
The overall project included the following:
Learn more about this project in our StoryMap.
Client: City of Halstad
Location: Halstad, Minnesota
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