North Dakotan Terry Williams is helping to manage the $3.2 billion Fargo-Moorhead Flood Diversion Project, an early-of-its-kind effort from the delivery method — the first alternative delivery project for the Corps of US Army Engineers and the first P3 water management project in North America, in its implementation of split delivery to the cities and counties that straddle the Red River, along the border of North Dakota and Minnesota. Although Williams calls the role a privilege and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, her colleagues say the job was practically written for her because she’s one of the few people who could handle such a multifaceted endeavor. “Not many projects move as quickly as this one, and Terry has the right balance to do it,” says Cass County Engineer Jason Benson, who has worked on the Fargo-Moorhead (FM) bypass project. with Williams since 2011.
Born on the campus of the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, Williams grew up in Fargo and Devil’s Lake, ND, and spent summers working for his father’s engineering company. He graduated from UND’s school of civil engineering in 1986 and immediately joined the Corps.
“Her education and demeanor make her a perfect fit for this role,” says Benson. “This connection to North Dakota not only influenced his career choice, but also helped him cross [literal and figurative] limits to create collaborations on both sides of the Red River”.
The experience of fighting spring floods shaped Williams’ childhood, and she quickly fell in love with the Corps’ flood control mission, she said, because it allowed her to directly impact people’s lives. His work has ranged from designing environmental restoration projects and lock and dam rehabilitations on the Mississippi River to flood control projects in his home state, where he witnessed the impact of flooding on communities that “have suffered horribly,” he says.
“Very often, we’re helping people after communities suffer significant damage, that’s when the funds come in, but that’s after the damage has been done,” he says. “I was very aware of the damage that would continue to happen to the [FM] community, and to be able to change that for the future of hundreds of people is a very rare opportunity for a civil engineer and very rewarding.”
The catastrophic floods of 2009 cost the FM metro area millions of dollars in just six weeks. In 2010, Williams was assigned to a feasibility study launched by the Corps to explore permanent countermeasures, and the project, which began in 2017, has become the culmination of her career. When completed in 2027, it will protect 70 square miles and nearly 260,000 people from flooding.
“The Corps is looking at ways to improve our flood management infrastructure and programs, and what alternative things can be done to speed up our work and reduce costs,” Williams says. The pilot program delivers $330 million in construction savings, shortening construction time by 10 years and transforming civil works project delivery. Best practices from the FM project are already being applied to other federal projects as well.
“Terry is the leader the team needs,” says Aaron Snyder, director of the corps’ water infrastructure funding program. “She supports them exceptionally well and takes the same approach with the public and private sponsors of the project: she inherently cares about everyone, makes them feel heard. That’s key for a mega-project, to pass information and many voices and deliver. She really wants the people of North Dakota to have this project; she’s very humble, but she’s the glue that holds it together.”
