Manitoba News Release: Access Roads Upgrades Underway to Build New Permanent Lake Manitoba and Lake St. Martin Outlet Channels

The province will soon start upgrading the access road for the proposed new, permanent Lake St. Martin outlet channel to greatly enhance the province’s flood management capacity, Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler announced today.

“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 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 has three main components:

• the road access to the construction area for the Lake St. Martin channel,
• a new channel constructed from Lake Manitoba to Lake St. Martin, and
• a new channel from Lake St. Martin to Lake Winnipeg.

Until the new Lake Manitoba and Lake St. Martin outlet channels are constructed and operational, the emergency channel will remain available for use as required.

Work on the access road is scheduled to start this year, to be completed through joint ventures with Indigenous communities, the minister noted.  Detailed design, Indigenous Crown consultations and environmental authorizations are intended to allow excavation work for the proposed channels starting in 2019, he added.

A map of the project is available at www.gov.mb.ca/mit/wms/lmblsmoutlets/pdf/lm_lsm_oc.pdf.

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