Graham is excited to announce the completion of a major infrastructure project for Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure (MTI). 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 primary driver was the need to replace the overpass bridge, which had exceeded its design service life and suffered multiple over-height vehicle impacts over the past ten years, leading to girder removals and lane restrictions. 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 with out-of-the-box thinking and planning. This setup allowed for efficient and accurate placement of the swale concrete, ensuring strong quality control measures were met.
Project by the Numbers
- 5,600m3 of concrete placed, utilizing 11 different mix designs
- 165,000kg of black and 75,000kg of Chrom-X reinforcing steel
- 130,000m3 of earthworks dirt moved
- 200,000t of roadworks granular supplied and placed
- 35,000t of Superpave Asphalt supplied and placed
Substantial Completion was achieved on November 3, 2023, with final seasonal restrictive work completed in spring 2024, with the bypass now fully opened to traffic.
We commend our team and subtrade partners for their hard work and dedication to safety in completing this complex project.
