The Alberta government says it has secured all the land it needs to make construction officially a go on a long-awaited reservoir needed to protect Calgary and surrounding communities from disastrous floods — like the one that killed five people and caused billions of dollars in damages in 2013.

The $432-million Springbank off-stream reservoir will redirect water from the Elbow River into a dry reservoir should extreme flood events occur. With up to $168.5 million in federal funding, the reservoir will be built on about 1,497 hectares of land near the rural community of Springbank, which is west and upstream of Calgary.

The province acknowledged last summer that there was remaining work to do to purchase the land required for the project, which has received significant pushback from the affected landowners for years.

On Thursday, it announced that after negotiating with landowners, voluntary agreements had been reached and all of the land needed for the project had been secured.

“I want to say thank you to the landowners who have made this announcement possible, as well as to department staff who engaged in these successful negotiations,” Alberta Transportation Minister Rajan Sawhney said in a release.

“Alberta’s government will be able to get construction going on this important project that will protect hundreds of thousands of Albertans — and especially Calgarians — from future catastrophic flooding.”

The project will take about three years to complete, and is expected to be operational by 2024.

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