Protected Areas Initiative

The New Duff Roblin Park Reserve

 
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Land Designation

Park Reserve

Landscape Description

The New Duff Roblin Park Reserve is located approximately four kilometres south of the Winnipeg Perimeter off PTH 75.  It is 56
hectares in size and includes the Floodway Inlet Control Structure and a portion of the floodway.  The park reserve has both
Heritage and Access land use categories (LUC).  The 32 hectares of Heritage LUC land recognizes the historical and
socio-economic significance of the floodway, while the 24 hectares reserved for Access LUC purposes accommodates an
existing tower and utility needs in the floodway inlet area. 

Outstanding Features

Named after former Manitoba Premier Duff Roblin, the park reserve commemorates construction of the flood control system
for the City of Winnipeg and will celebrate the establishment of Manitoba’s system of provincial parks.  Construction on the
Greater Winnipeg Floodway, known as Duff’s Ditch, began in 1962 and took six years to complete.  As the largest excavation
project in Canada to date, and one of the largest earthmoving projects in the world, it required the removal of 76 million cubic
metres of earth.  At a length of 47 km and a width equal to that of the Red River, the Floodway is large enough to be seen from
space.

Since the Floodway’s completion it has been used twenty times to help control the Red River flood levels.  Without the
Floodway, it is estimated that the 1997 flood would have crested at 10.5 metres, flooding 80 per cent of Winnipeg and forcing
the evacuation of 550,000 of its citizens.  In 2000, the Red River Floodway was designated a National Historic Site, as an
“outstanding engineering achievement in flood control.”