TThe contractor and flood control authority for the massive Red River Deviation Project in North Dakota have resolved $ 400 million in claims with a liquidation of $ 57 million.
Much of the delay -related claims, third -party raiilroads and the fulfillment of regulatory requirements, said a spokesman for the Metro Flood Deviation Authority (MFDA). A small part rHe said he did not use epoxy coating when receiving in some parts of the project to protect him from corrosion.
The settlement erases unresolved matters shortly after the new leaders had assumed the two project partners and sought to put past disputes of the project behind.
By virtue of the agreement, the MFDA will pay $ 57 million in increases for the project developer and contractor, the Red River Valley Alliance, whose design and construction arm are ASN builders.
The Board of 13 MFDA members unanimously approved the liquidation, which reduces the risk of unknown legal costs and the delays arising from the litigation, said MFDA in a statement. Additional payments will come out of a contingency budget.
John Shockley, the General Counsel of the Authority, told the MFDA board at a meeting of July 2 Settlement of $ 400 million It represents less than 2% of the $ 3.2 million project.
“Fifty-seven millions of dollars are obviously a lot of money, but sometimes with a great project like this I think it is sometimes appropriate to take a step back and have a 30,000-feet vision,” Shockley told the advice.
The deviation project of the Fargo-Moorhead area broke the ground in 2017. Its 30 miles channel is the first public-private association made jointly with the United States Army Engineers Corps and The first P3 water management in North America. It is also the first green financing initiative in the United States, designed specifically for the adaptation of climate change.
An association of Acciona, Shikun and Binui USA and North American Construction Group, the Red River Valley Alliance is the developer of the Rainwater Deviation Channel and the part of associated infrastructure of the Fargo-Moorhead General Project.
There is an important second part of the global project that the body provides: the portion that will stage the water and control its flow. The body also serves as a federal agency that oversees the entire project.
The P3 mechanism allows the Fargo-Moorhead part of the global project to build ten years sooner than if the body built it alone, saving millions of dollars.
In March 2025, Luke Chenery took the rudder of the River Red Valley alliance as CEO, and in February 2025 Jason Benson became MFDA Permanent Executive Director.
The administrator of the city of Fargo, Michael Redlinger, and the Cassa county administrator, Robert Wilson, had served as co-executives since the resignation of Joel Paulsen a year ago.
In a place in Linkedin six months after his departure, Paulsen wrote that he still supports the project “and I hope I was successful, but I have passed and focused on the unique theme that resulted in my resignation, construction disputes.”
The authority and the alliance had been waiting for guidance on disagreements of contracts by the Technical Advisory Board of the Authority. The Council had heard the initial claim on the need to use EPOOXI RECOVED to the deviation structures of the Fargo-Moorhead area in May 2024, but was delayed by a complaint on the open meeting requirements that the State Attorney General had to decide.
Superficial coating replaced
The use of receiving Epoxi -coated, the first matter played before the Technical Advisory Council, had received a lot of public care. During a tour of the site, a part of the MFDA team realized that it was used to receive not covered instead of the epoxy coating bar, which requested the technical requirements, said the MFDA spokeswoman.
Asn builders began to incorporate an epoxy -coated receipt into concrete structures in July last year, MFDA reported in a statement, but the completed concrete structures without receiving coated will have their covered surfaces with what the MFDA describes as a “protective product” called “called” called “called” Tex-Cote®. By virtue of liquidation with the alliance, a substantial completion will be coated and registered by the manufacturer’s specifications.
The change in the leadership and waiting for the decisions of the Technical Counseling Disputes review “presented an opportunity for a collective review of past and present disputes,” said Benson. “We have reaffirmed our commitment to work together and have established additional checks and collaborative approaches that are expected to reduce the need for formal conflict resolution processes.” Chenery expressed the same feelings.
“Through our small debates on the leadership team, the parties were able to reach this technical solution, without the need to eliminate and replace the previously completed structures, which helps maintain the project on time and prevents economic waste,” said Benson.
With additional reports from Jennifer Seward
