Waverley West Arterial Roads Project Kenaston Overpass

Kenaston Boulevard was designated a primary economic route within the City of Winnipeg, Capital Region and the Province of Manitoba due to the linkage it provides between major industrial/commercial sites and national/international trade routes. The Waverley West Arterial Roads Project (WWARP) extends Kenaston Boulevard to the Perimeter Highway and handles a large volume of truck traffic. The extension has produced significant cost savings for the transport industry as well as relieving congestion on adjacent arterial routes and routes servicing new neighbourhoods in southwest Winnipeg. This session will focus on the unique grade-separated structure constructed as part of the WWARP project, known as the Kenaston Overpass. The first flyover (grade-separation) structure of its kind in Winnipeg, the Kenaston Overpass consists of a 105 m long two-span structure that spans across Kenaston Boulevard. The new flyover structure facilitates uninterrupted travel along the extended Kenaston Boulevard while facilitating efficient movement of traffic to Bishop Grandin Boulevard, another major arterial route.

This complex project had unique design and construction features that were considered during its delivery. One of the fundamental challenges for the Kenaston Overpass was accommodating for the future extension of Bishop Grandin Boulevard in addition to satisfying the roadway alignment of the realigned Bishop Grandin Boulevard and extended Kenaston Boulevard. This greatly restricted a number of the structural configurations that could have been used to simplify the design.

Unique design features include the horizontally curved, 5.2% superelevated deck constructed on steel trapezoidal box girders of varying span lengths, with semi-integral abutments. To keep the approach embankments within the available property and maintain stability of the surrounding (poor quality) soil, mechanically stabilized earth wall embankments with light-weight concrete backfill were utilized.

Unique construction challenges include dealing with poor subsurface soil conditions, the presence of fibre optic communication cables and a high pressure gas line on site, working along the boundary of high-power transmission lines, construction during the coldest winter in over 100 years, maintaining four lanes of traffic through the site during construction, and fabrication and erection the geometrically complex steel box girders.

The Kenaston Overpass project highlights the transportation field’s promotion of efficient transportation by using innovative design methodologies and construction techniques to meet the increasing demands on infrastructure today.