Sign of spring? Amphibex fleet set to begin breaking ice near Selkirk

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 Winnipegnext week tobegin the work of preventingice jams and related flooding during the spring thaw.

Remote-controlled ice-cutting machines will first carve into the frozen river beforethree 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-kilogramAmphibex machines a cross between a barge and a backhoe are used before and during the spring thaw. Unlike the ice cutters, theyareamphibious, so there is no worry about them falling through the ice.

They were originally engineered for dredgingwaterways in the summerbut were beefedup to withstandhigh-impact ice-breaking.The operator uses the excavator claw toraise the machine upthen drop it back down on the ice surface.

The ice-jam mitigation program works to open up a channel about100 metres wide, stretching for 28 kilometres from Selkirk to theNetley-LibauMarsh.

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 whetherthey 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 materialin areas covered by the ice-jam mitigation program.