Burlington celebrates completion of flood protection efforts

Burlington, North Dakota – Twelve years following the catastrophic effects of the Souris River flood, the city of Burlington has finished its work to prevent future flooding.

It is the first municipality in the Souris River Basin to have complete protection from an occurrence such to what happened in 2011.

The building of earthen levees alongside the river and the whole repair of the Colton Avenue Bridge were important elements of Burlington’s flood prevention efforts.

The entire project came up to about $40 million.

On Tuesday, the project’s leadership and the people of Burlington came together to celebrate the project with a cookout.

The Souris River Joint Board chair, David Ashley, stated that Burlington took the initiative to start working on flood prevention immediately after the disaster.

“It’s been a been a very challenging thing because a lot of construction going on but the thing is we started the construction in 2019 and now we’re completing it and 2023 and that’s quite significant, and that speaks well to the cooperation of the community,” said Ashley.

Your News Leader talked to some lifelong Burlington residents about the significance of this day—some of them having experienced both the 1969 and 2011 floods.

“The mayor we had in 2011, they took the bull by the horns, so to speak, and Burlington was the first one that was doing significant changes. And that has made a big difference,” said Doris Johansen, longtime Burlington resident.

“Oh, it’s nice to see all this done. There’s a lot of nice work done. Most of it’s completed now, little things to tie up, but yes, it will help a lot of homeowners now,” said John Karhoff, longtime Burlington resident.

After Burlington was finished, work in the city of Minot is still ongoing on the project’s major phases.