Portage la Prairie Bypass

Located near Portage la Prairie, west of Winnipeg on the Trans-Canada Highway, this highway bypass project involved various stages and complexities to manage ongoing high volumes of traffic while allowing construction to progress. The bypass was a critical project for the Province of Manitoba.

Project Overview

The work included replacing an overpass bridge, rehabilitating a bridge over CP tracks, constructing two highway roundabouts to safely merge traffic entering and exiting Portage la Prairie with high-speed highway vehicles, and reconstructing approximately 13 lane kilometers of adjacent Trans-Canada Highway. The new overpass is a two-span precast prestressed concrete box girder bridge founded on steel h-piles, with cast-in-place substructures and superstructure, and designed for a 75-year service life to meet all new applicable standards, including an increased vertical opening.

Project Execution

Graham managed the coordination, quality, and safety of the work performed by our subtrade partners, including girder fabrication, erection, and extensive roadworks. Graham self-performed the bridge cast-in-place concrete, including large gang formwork, as well as the median barrier and drainage swale.

The project required 1,400 linear meters of median barrier to be slip-formed which involved significant planning and collaboration. Alongside the median barrier, a 5,000 square meter cast-in-place concrete drainage swale was constructed using a modified Bidwell bridge deck finishing machine. This setup allowed for efficient and accurate placement of the swale concrete, ensuring strong quality control measures were met.