Rivers Dam rehabilitation work begins

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This article was published 15/07/2023 (994 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Work to rehabilitate the 63-year-old Rivers Dam on Lake Wahtopanah has started and will cost $40 million to complete, provincial Infrastructure Minister Doyle Piwniuk announced Friday.

A major rainstorm in early July 2020 caused water to flow through the dam from the lake into the Little Saskatchewan River at a rate of 12,000 cubic feet per second, almost three times more than the previous recorded peak outflow of 4,500 cubic feet per second.

Since that water level was far beyond the structure’s current capacity, the province was worried that it might fail and dump a large amount of water headed downstream to communities like Brandon.

Ultimately the dam held, but the province said it would investigate bringing it up to modern standards. Temporary repairs to the dam’s spillway were completed in February 2021.

In March 2022, Piwniuk announced that a contract for the design of the rehabilitated structure had been awarded to Winnipeg-based KGS Group Limited.

On Friday, the minister issued a media release stating that the first phase of rehabilitation work on the dam’s low-flow conduit had begun.

According to the release, the cost of the first phase will be in the neighbourhood of $5.5 million and construction will be completed next fall.

A larger portion of the project rehabilitating the concrete spillway and embankment is expected to be tendered in spring 2024 with construction starting that summer and finishing in fall 2025. This work is expected to cost around $34 million.

“Our government is pleased to announce the start of construction on the Rivers Dam to ensure that the dam can safely pass future flood events,” Piwniuk said in the release.

“This project is moving forward using feedback provided by local stakeholders, who provided valuable input through the public engagement process and have given positive feedback on the final design.”

The minister also noted that once work is complete, the dam will be able to withstand floods that exceed the one-in-1,000-year event in 2020.

In a phone interview, Piwniuk told the Sun that activity at the lake and Rivers Provincial Park is not expected to be disrupted by construction.

“The structure will be built simultaneously with having the old structures in place,” he said. “Once we transition from one side to the other, then we won’t disrupt the flow of water and the actual level of the dam.”

He said some of the costs for the projects like these being done in the wake of flooding in previous years are being covered through federal disaster financial assistance programs.

Once work on the Rivers Dam is complete, Piwniuk said most of the original structure from the 1960s will have been replaced.

Though work is being planned to take place after annual spring runoff has finished, the minister said considerations are being made in case a flooding event takes place during construction.

In May, the province told the Sun that the design for the rehabilitated dam follows current guidelines created by the Canadian Dam Association.

Reached by phone, Riverdale Municipality Mayor Heather Lamb said she would be unable to comment on the announcement without first consulting with the rest of her council.

She invited the Sun to sign up as a delegation to the next municipal council meeting taking place next week to request comment or to send an email requesting comment to her so that it could be discussed at the next meeting.

“Of course, funding is always appreciated and it’s for the betterment of our community,” she said. “I mean, it doesn’t tell you that much, but I can certainly say something like that if that’s OK.”

Also on Friday, Piwniuk announced that the province will be building a new bridge over the Assiniboine River on Highway 34, north of Holland in the RM of Victoria.

The total cost of replacing the current 71-year-old structure is $35.3 million. Construction of the new bridge is expected to start this fall and open to traffic in fall 2024. The old bridge will be demolished the winter after that.

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