Clay County Commission

Dan Haglund

Clay County engineer Justin Sorum brought in a bridge project expert to discuss the north Broadway/Wall Street bridge and replacement options before the Clay County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, Nov. 21, in Moorhead.
The north Moorhead/Fargo connecting bridge was demolished a few years ago due to instability caused by erosion from years of flooding events.
Houston Engineering has been tasked with looking at the north Broadway bridge by both the city of Fargo and Clay County.
Jeremy McLaughlin, who leads the transportation and structures business sector at Houston Engineering, presented his options and video slides to show commissioners where the planning stage is at.
McLaughlin said his company looked at three options for the north Broadway bridge, including replacing the bridge at approximately its current elevation, replacing it at a higher elevation, and not replacing it/having traffic detoured permanently.
McLaughlin detailed that the second option, which would replace the bridge with the deck above a 37-foot flood elevation, with the bridge either extending south further toward Broadway or touching down near a cul-de-sac southwest of the bridge, has been ruled out by Clay County.
The Houston Engineering bridge plan would involve a 40-foot width, including a 12-foot driving lane and an 8-foot shoulder on each side. It would also include a 10-foot-wide multi-use path with ornamental metal railings.
McLaughlin noted that the previous bridge did not have a pedestrian bridge section, and that the new bridge would mark an improvement for foot and bike traffic safety.
Option 1 includes a new road alignment slightly further west, McLaughlin said, due to geotechnical instability issues along the (Red) river.
“As most of you are very familiar, the old bridge had stability issues on the north embankment which required the new bridge to be longer by about 500 feet,” McLaughlin said. “And on the south end where there was a previous curve, that road is pushed west because of failure issues in the slopes there as well.”
McLaughlin noted that Option 1 would not impact the Royal Oaks neighborhood, as opposed to Option 2, which would have affected it.
And with Option 1, the roadway and bridge would be inundated as before with major flood events, as the elevation would remain static.
McLaughlin noted that there were about 3,000 vehicles crossing the bridge daily prior to its closure, with the main bypass streets being 10th Street and University in Fargo. The 10th Street (residential neighborhood) traffic volume increased from 860 vehicles per day before the bridge closure to 1,670, nearly doubling it. A new bridge would bring that traffic volume back closer to what it was previously.
Exercising Option 3, which would be to not build a new bridge, and would involve dead-ending the road, obliterate the existing roadway and create a cul-de-sac at the north end.
McLaughlin said the benefit cost analysis would calculate the benefits versus the expected costs. The benefits include: vehicle miles traveled, vehicle hours traveled, safety and green-house gas emissions. The costs include: initial construction costs, bridge maintenance and operations costs, roadway maintenance and operations costs, and potential roadway intersection improvements.
Breaking down the estimated total costs between the three options, Option 1 comes in with an estimated construction cost of $15,225,000, with a total cost with fees and engineering at $20,333,000. Options 2(a) and 2(b), which have already been eliminated, would have construction costs between $25.9 million and $34.7 million, with overall costs between $36.8 million and $46.4 million. Option 3, which is a non-replacement, would have construction costs of $579,000 and an overall cost of $817,000.
Houston Engineering’s benefit cost-analysis found that only Option 1 compiled a metric showing benefits outweighing the costs.
The final cost breakdown for Option 1 would be divided between Fargo, Clay County and federal funds. With the total project costs at $20-22 million, federal funds would cover the first $5.4 million. That leaves the City of Fargo with $7.2-8.2 million in costs, and Clay County with $7.8-8.8 million.
Option 3 would see no federal funds, and the work would cost Fargo $700,000 and Clay County $120,000.
Commissioner David Ebinger, Dist. 5, inquired as to what decision-making stage the City of Fargo is at, and how their decision would affect the Minnesota side.
“I think it’s just good to just make our stance known at what our decision would be, because ultimately we are a 50 percent partner, because they are bringing this presentation with their final recommendation to their city council on Monday (Nov. 27),” Sorum said.
Ebinger further asked Sorum about the Clay County portion of the Option 1 cost. Sorum said about $2.5 million from funds for state-aid highway, $2.5 million would come from bridge bonding (if available), and Clay County’s cost would be about $5.6 million.
“On a typical year we budget for about $3.9 million in county state-aid highway, so at $5.6 million it would set the five-year plan back a ways,” Sorum said.
Commissioner Kevin Campbell, Dist. 4, brought up a recent citizen survey asking about bridge replacement, and support was quite high when the price tag was $5 million, but lowered significantly with a $10 million cost.
“At these current projections for Clay County, what that would do to our whole annual budget, it would devastate our budget,” Campbell said. “And I don’t think it’s feasible to do under those numbers. I think we should just let Fargo know what we’re willing to pay towards the bridge, and if they can make that work within what they’re doing, that’s fine.”