Red River Floodway back in action

The Red River Floodway began operating Monday night for the first time this year.

Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation announced Monday morning that the huge diversion would be put into action starting at 6 p.m. The floodway diverts water from the Red River into a man-made channel around the east side of Winnipeg and back into the Red River north of the city at Lockport.

The Red River rose 6.6 feet in the last 24 hours and is expected to continue rising at a similar rate due to increasing flows from tributaries fed by water runoff, provincial officials said.

The river level in downtown Winnipeg was 14.2 feet (as measured at James Avenue) as of 8 a.m. Monday. It could reach 17.5 feet by Tuesday morning. During the 2011 flood, the Red reached 20.7 feet James.  The record level since the floodway was first used in 1969 was during the 1997 “flood of the century,” when it reached 24.5 feet James.

The floodway operates using huge gates under the river at the control structure on the Red River just outside the Perimeter Highway south of Winnipeg. They rise, causing the river to level go up and spill over into the floodway channel, diverting a portion of it away from the centre of the city.