Saturday, June 25, 2011

Flooding At Williston Possible -- Heart of the Bakken, North Dakota, USA

US Highway 85 south of the river, just after crossing the bridge has water almost up to the edge of the road. If this road were to flood, it would be a huge challenge for the oil industry.

Link here.
Hallesy was also asked what would trigger action to protect U.S. Highway 85 south of Williston, where Missouri River water is nearly to the road.

Hallesy said he was told by officials from the state Department of Transportation that actions to protect the road would be triggered "once the water touches the white stripe" on the edge of the road. [That seems a bit late to me.]
When I was there a couple of weeks ago, I thought "we" had been through the worse, but now I'm not so sure having seen the snowpack in the Rockies that has yet to melt.

4 comments:

  1. Unfortunately that sounds like par for the course for area flooding for most DOT's. Down in MN we have some roadways that are the Lifelines of rural area's and the don't even consider doing anything until the water is on the road and headed to the yellow line... well other than put up caution cones. I suspect their reasoning is the expected weekend crest and then the subsequent fall of of river levels. Basically, their not expecting it to hit the white line.

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  2. Between the effects of harsh winter conditons and extreme flood conditions, I am beginning to wonder if drilling in the Williston Basin poses more of a challenge than drilling in Alaska.

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  3. If that is true, the waiting until the water touches the white line, then somebody needs to lose their job - period!

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  4. I agree. I think this whole thing has caught the Corps and others completely off guard. It is really quite remarkable. My simple way of thinking suggests they should have been putting up a dike on either side of the highway by now.

    It's probably about 2 miles long -- that lifeline from south of the bridge to the bottom of Indian Hill.

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