Visites techniques

Small Dams Tour 

Thursday Oct 26 

Manitoba is home to a large number of small to medium sized dams built between the 1950s and 1980s by the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration. This full day technical tour will take you to three uniquely different sites in rural Manitoba to showcase three different spillways and the challenges associated with these types of structures. The tour will include.

Mary Jane Dam, an embankment dam with a drop inlet spillway whose auxiliary spillway was washed out and subsequently rebuilt following the spring flood of 2022; 
Stephenfield Dam, an embankment dam with a relatively unique timber chute spillway.

Morden Dam, an embankment dam with a traditional PFRA style concrete spillway structure, with a storied past that includes failure of the lower portion of the spillway, issues with the spillway drainage system, a complete rebuild of the spillway and subsequent 7ft raising of the spillway crest.

A bagged Lunch will be included.

PPE requirements include a safety vest and comfortable closed toed walking shoes.

Floodway and St. Andrews Lock and Dam Tour 

Thursday Oct 26 

At the time of its initial construction in 1968 the Red River Floodway was the second largest ever earth moving project in the world, second only to the Panama Canal. Since its construction and expansion beginning in 2005 it has prevented tens of billions of dollars in flood damages in Winnipeg. This full day technical tour will include stops at the inlet gates, along the channel, and the outlet structure. The tour will also include a stop at the St. Andrews Lock and Dam on the Red River, the largest “Camere” style structure in the world. Both the Red River Floodway and the St. Andrews Dam are National Historic Civil Engineering Sites (CSCE). 

Lunch is included at the Half Moon Drive In, a well-loved Manitoba institution.

PPE requirements include a safety vest and comfortable closed toed walking shoes.

Keeyask Tour

Thursday Oct 26  
Duration: 11.5 hours

$850 and will include transportation to and from Keeyask
(via tour bus / chartered flights), and lunch/snacks.

The Keeyask Project is a 695-megawatt (MW) hydroelectric generating station developed in a partnership between Manitoba Hydro and four Manitoba First Nations: Tataskweyak Cree Nation, War Lake First Nation, York Factory First Nation, and Fox Lake Cree Nation. The station was commissioned in 2022, and adds approximately 4,400 gigawatt-hours of renewable electricity per year to Manitoba Hydro’s total generation supply. That’s enough electricity to power 400,000 homes!

Come explore power generation in northern Manitoba on this technical tour that will showcase the powerhouse that features seven fixed blade vertical shaft turbines, the seven bay vertical lift gate spillway, and more than 25 km of dams and dikes containing Gull Lake. The tour will include all transportation to and from Keeyask GS, including bus transport and a charter flight to Gillam, MB. Drinks, snacks, and a bagged lunch will be provided. All attendees are required to bring PPE, including steel-toes shoes. Further details to follow!

The Approximate Tour Schedule

Winnipeg River Tour

Thursday Oct 26 - 8:00 am - 4:30 pm

Manitoba Hydro's Winnipeg River stations have been providing clean sustainable power to Manitobans for more than a century. This full day tour will visit the Pine Falls generating station, an 84MW station built between 1949 and 1952; and Seven Sisters GS one of the largest plants on the Winnipeg River system (Approx. 18.6m head drop). A bagged lunch will be provided and attendees will have the chance to explore the Pinawa Dam provincial park during the break. This park showcases the old Pinawa Dam which was retired in 1951 to allow for more efficient use of water resources at Seven Sisters. 

PPE requirements for this tour include steel toed shoes or boots and high visibility vest, MB Hydro will supply hard hats and hearing protection. 

 The approximate timeframes are below: