Sign of spring? Amphibex fleet set to begin breaking ice near Selkirk
Machinery cuts, breaks ice on rivers to prevent ice-jamming during spring thaw
Manitobans are about to see an annual indicator — more so than the groundhog — that spring is around the corner.
The Amphibex icebreakers will head onto the Red River north of Winnipeg next week to begin the work of preventing ice jams and related flooding during the spring thaw.
Remote-controlled ice-cutting machines will first carve into the frozen river before three Amphibex icebreakers follow up, pounding and crushing the ice to allow the water to flow more freely toward Lake Winnipeg when the thaw comes.
The 20,000-kilogram Amphibex machines — a cross between a barge and a backhoe — are used before and during the spring thaw. Unlike the ice cutters, they are amphibious, so there is no worry about them falling through the ice.
They were originally engineered for dredging waterways in the summer but were beefed up to withstand high-impact ice-breaking. The operator uses the excavator claw to raise the machine up then drop it back down on the ice surface.
The ice-jam mitigation program works to open up a channel about 100 metres wide, stretching for 28 kilometres from Selkirk to the Netley-Libau Marsh.
The same operations are also planned for the Icelandic River at Riverton in mid- to late-March.
Although ice breaking is also often done at the outlet of the Portage Diversion along the Assiniboine River, Amphibexes are not expected to be required there this year, the province said in a news release on Thursday.
Conditions on the Assiniboine will be monitored to determine whether they will have to be sent in after all.
Notices have been posted in areas where the machines will be working.
The public is advised to stay off ice where notices are posted or where evidence of recent ice cutting is apparent. Ice fishers are also reminded to remove huts or other material in areas covered by the ice-jam mitigation program.