(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson County Board of Supervisors today (Tues.) voted 5-0 to approve a contingency plan in the event of heavy rains prior to work getting underway on the project to replace culverts at the Lower Gar Outlet with a bridge. County Engineer Jeff Rose told the supervisors certain parameters would need to be met to trigger the plan…
“The plan basically has a trigger criteria which would be 12 inches above the weir and a forecast of seven consecutive days of rain. We talk about existing conditions, the objective to mitigate a risk of flood, and the steps: one, to have the County Engineer monitor and assess; have the County Engineer activate the development, the control measures; stakeholder notifications which will include Emergency Management, 501 Traffic System, local utilities, school district, Post Office and radio station, and then documentation of other events and when a contractor is dispatched.”
Supervisor Kim Wermersen requested the plan contain one other provision…
“I would like to see us include notification of the Clay County Engineer in Clay county because it’s going to obviously affect them. Other than that it makes a lot of sense what you have going here.”
A bid letting on the bridge project is set for this coming August 25th. A provision in that contract would call for the existing culverts to be removed as soon as possible with September 15th being a late start date for that part of the project. Construction of the bridge itself is to get underway no later than April 1st, 2026, in order to avoid any financial penalty.
