Official: Don’t scale back plan

MINOT (AP) — Minot engineers said scaling back a $543 million flood control project is not worth the effort.

City Council members wanted to know the cost of reducing the project’s design elevation from more than 27,000 cubic feet of river flow that marked the record 2011 flood, to lower levels.

Engineers said the biggest cost savings amounted to less than $31 million, or less than 6 percent of the project’s price tag. It also involved lowering protection to 10,000 cubic feet of river flow.

City Council member Dave Lehner told the Minot Daily News that the numbers weren’t what the city was hoping for, but it shows the “realities” of a large-scale flood protection plan.

The Souris River flooded more than 4,000 homes and businesses in the summer of 2011.

Tags: north dakota, news