Design for 12th Avenue North bridge approved by Fargo City Commission

FARGO (KVRR/KFGO) – The City of Fargo is moving forward with a new design for a bridge on the northside that connects 12th Avenue North in Fargo and 15th Avenue North in Moorhead.

Fargo City Commissioners voted unanimously on Feb. 2 to move ahead with the project. Jeremy Gordon is an Engineer with the City of Fargo’s Transportation Division. He says the project will include a mini roundabout at the intersection of 12th Avenue and Elm Street.

“Better traffic operations at peak hours, less impacts at Jack Williams Stadium and, believe it or not, the majority of residents from the public preferred the mini roundabout versus the traffic signal. So I would say as a traffic engineer in the last 25 years, we’ve made progress with roundabouts,” Gordon told commissioners.

According to engineers, the mini roundabout costs about $1 million-$2 million less than installing traffic signals.

Past flooding of the 12th Avenue North bridge in Fargo. Courtesy: KFGO

The current bridge floods when the Red River reaches 27 feet. Gordon says it has gone under water 8 of the last 15 years.

He says the new design will be able to withstand major flooding, and raising the bridge will ensure thousands of people in north Fargo have a reliable route during spring flooding.

“There’s 12,000-13,000 vehicles a day that cross this bridge, which is impressive. It’s gone up six times since when it was a toll bridge, it’s really unprecedented the traffic that uses this. As a comparison, there was only 1,500 on North Broadway, so it’s upwards of ten times more traffic,” Gordon explained.

The total cost of the project is estimated between $26 million and $29 million dollars.

A $1.5 million federal grant is covering the design phase, but no funds have been set aside for construction yet.

Gordon says they plan to apply for more federal grants in the fall of 2026.