Work on upgrading the access road for the newly proposed Lake St. Martin and Lake Manitoba outlet channels will begin soon, according to a release from the province.
The project is intended to help with flood management.
“The first phase of this project will involve upgrades to the road that provides construction crews with access to the site of the proposed Lake St. Martin channel,” said Insfrastructure Minister Ron Schuler. “A project of this size requires considerable planning and levels of approvals, and we continue to work with Indigenous groups as we move forward on the components of this project.”
The project is made up of three main components:
• Road access to the construction area for the Lake St. Martin channel
• A new channel constructed from Lake Manitoba to Lake St. Martin
• A new channel from Lake St. Martin to Lake Winnipeg
In the meantime, the province said the emergency channel, built during the 2011 flood fight, will still be available while the new outlet channels are built.
Schuler said work on the access road will begin this year, while an excavation for the channels is expected to begin in 2019.
A map of the project is available here.
