Saskatchewan – The City of Portage la Prairie has invested nearly 5.8 million dollars to significantly upgrade drainage systems as part of the overall Saskatchewan Avenue West Development Project.
The decision was made to upgrade land drainage system, increasing the outfall capacity by more than 10 times, and improving the ability of the system to handle large weather events quickly.
“As we see climate change resulting in more frequent severe storms, City Council made the decision to upgrade our investment into our land drainage system to provide added protection to property owners from overland flooding,” said, Councillor Ryan Espey. “While this is an investment that ratepayers won’t see, we know it will be a good investment that will give us added protection for years to come.”
Work is expected to be complete by the end of August 2022 and is being managed by local contractor EF Moon Construction. The upgraded land drainage system takes water from along Saskatchewan Avenue and redirects it through 5 major culvert systems and deposits it into Crescent Lake.
“The major priority of City Council during our term was the redevelopment of Saskatchewan Avenue, which has been talked about for decades,” said Mayor Irvine Ferris. “I am proud of this Council for having the vision to incorporate additional severe storm protection into a project that will also improve the beautification of our west end.”
