Flood protection for Reinland Drain in Manitoba

Overview

The Reinland Drain is a municipal drainage channel in Manitoba that receives flows from the entire Pembina Valley. The channel’s sandy, silty clay soil could not handle flow from a 100-year storm event. Years of erosion, combined with damage from significant flooding, caused major failures to 3 km of the channel. The town needed to stabilize the eroded channel banks to prevent further flooding and shoreline loss.

Due to wet weather, the construction schedule was delayed until winter months. This delay caused two major challenges. First, the damp soil froze creating a three-foot thick section of frozen ground. Second, the project had to be completed before the spring run-off began in March, which drastically shortened the allotted construction schedule.

Challenge

Rip rap had previously been used in the channel but failed during rain events. Plus, the closest quarry was 90 minutes away. Transporting the amount of needed rock would add considerable time and cost. PROPEX® Armormax® was selected because it cost significantly less to ship, while outperforming hard armoring solutions. One truckload of 20,000 yd² of PROPEX Armormax is equivalent to 667 truckloads (6,667 yd²) of rock riprap. This cut transportation costs and lowered the carbon emissions by 90 percent.

Solution

To overcome the challenge presented by the frozen ground, the engineer used a larger pin that was within the acceptable specification range.

Additionally, PROPEX Armormax was selected because it met the hydraulic performance requirements, is proven to provide up to 75 years of design life and is engineered to promote vegetation.

Tom Crilly, the project engineer, was impressed by the ease of installation and said, “PROPEX Armormax is a very useful product for erosion control where more standard erosion control measures are difficult to obtain or expensive.” Approximately 38,000 m² of PROPEX Armormax was installed, providing the Reinland community with resilient flood protection infrastructure for generations to come. Within six months the channel was fully vegetated.