Winnipeg firm lands contract to repair dam
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/03/2022 (1347 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
RIVERS — Reconstruction of the dam at Lake Wahtopanah, north of Brandon, will begin this year, two years after a colossal rainstorm damaged it.
Infrastructure Minister Doyle Piwniuk said KGS Group Ltd. of Winnipeg was awarded the contract to design the reconstructed dam. Construction could start as early as this fall and is expected to take up to three years.
“In early July 2020, heavy rainfall caused record rainfall in the Little Saskatchewan River, which affected the dam here in Rivers,” Piwniuk said.
Water flowed through the dam at a rate of 12,000 cubic feet per second, more than double the previous peak outflow of 4,500 cubic feet per second.
The dam held despite the flow exceeding capacity, putting towns like Rivers, and the city of Brandon, which is downstream, on high alert.
The City of Brandon erected a temporary dike along 18th Street North to block off Grand Valley Road, and some residents were evacuated, but the dam, built in 1960, stayed in tact.
The project will bring the 62-year-old structure up to current provincial and national standards and is part of a government initiative to prepare infrastructure for the effects of climate change, the minister said.
Last year, Piwniuk said, a preliminary design for the rehabilitation was completed with input from municipalities and stakeholders. Interim fixes to the spillway were completed in winter 2021 and the structure performed well in the subsequent spring.
With the province having downgraded the severity of its flood outlook for this spring, Piwniuk said the dam is expected to handle snowmelt and runoff.
“We’re very confident that the outlook for the Souris and Assiniboine (rivers) are going to be very low when it comes to any flooding,” he said. “It all depends on whether there’s a weather event.”
No price tag for the project was revealed, and KGS is still choosing between several options for the project.
Ken Tait, deputy mayor of the R.M. of Riverdale applauded the project.
“It’s a little over 60 years old and it withstood a real blow in 2020,” he said. “Hopefully, the repairs … over the next three years will last the next thousand years before the next big main event.”
— Brandon Sun