Digging deep into history Province seeks upgrade to aging tunnel system under legislature By: Ben Waldman Posted: 3:16 PM CDT Friday, Sep. 11, 2020

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/09/2020 (2027 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Something is lurking under the Manitoba Legislative Building.

It’s nothing nefarious, just a system of tunnels, more than a century old, that connects the nucleus of provincial government activity to the electron cloud that surrounds it: the Central Powerhouse at 219 Memorial Blvd., the Law Courts at 408 York Ave., and the Winnipeg Land Titles Building at 433 Broadway.

While urban legend has it the tunnels were an escape hatch for besieged politicians, these days, the tunnel network serves a mechanical and electrical purpose. A new request-for-proposal issued by the province shows the network needs an upgrade — understandably, since it predates the 100-year-old legislature by five years.

“Due to the age of the service tunnel, an investigation of its condition was conducted,” a provincial spokesperson said. “It confirmed the presence of significant corrosion of the embedded reinforcing steel. A new, self-supporting concrete jacket and added waterproofing will be constructed, which will encapsulate the existing tunnel for protection.”

The budget for the construction management services is pegged at $7 million.

The tunnels, built in phases in 1915-16, have long been an object of fascination for certain historical enthusiasts. The network’s key function when built was to connect the downtown government buildings to the central powerhouse, which is between the Law Courts building and Memorial Park, supplying steam heat to each node.

In 2012, local historian Randy Rostecki told the Free Press the network grew to include the Vaughn Street detention centre, the provincial archive building, the Norquay Building at York Avenue and Kennedy Street, the Woodsworth Building, and the Winnipeg Remand Centre.

In 2012, local historian Randy Rostecki told the Free Press the network grew to include the Vaughn Street detention centre, the provincial archive building, the Norquay Building at York Avenue and Kennedy Street, the Woodsworth Building, and the Winnipeg Remand Centre.

“The concept of a legislative area evolved,” Rostecki said in part of a series of articles documenting the history of the legislative tunnels, tunnels in the Exchange District under Market Avenue, and one that connected the former Royal Alexandra Hotel to a Higgins Avenue train station.

In the legislative tunnels, there is extensive work outlined in the RFP, including a full excavation of its length, preparing the surface for the installation of the concrete jacket, and continuous waterproofing and drainage work.

Meanwhile, the province’s central services department has also retained local firm Crosier Kilgour & Partners Ltd. to develop a remediation program to extend the mechanical and electrical services houses within the tunnels between the powerhouse and legislative building for “a minimum additional 100 years” of life.

The submission deadline for proposals is Sept. 17. The construction phase is scheduled to occur in stages from April 2021 to March 2022.

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca