Barbut & Muskrat Creek Culvert Replacement
Client
Ministry of Transportation of Ontario
Region
Central Canada
City
Deu-Rivieres and Cobden
Year Completed
2021
Size
Barbut Creek - 1.31 km, Muskrat Creek - 1.38 km
Sector
Civil
Sub-Sector
Water & Wastewater
The Story
The Barbut & Muskrat Creek Culvert Replacement project involved the complete replacement of two structural culverts at Barbut Creek and Muskrat Creek, 150 kilometres apart on Highway 17 along the Ontario-Quebec border.
The Barbut Creek Culvert Replacement involved replacing the existing open footing reinforced culvert with a steel plate arch culvert using concrete pedestal footings.
The Muskrat Creek Culvert Replacement involved replacing the existing open footing reinforced culvert with a cast-in-place box culvert. This was built on a new creek alignment, approximately six metres west of the original. Muskrat Creek Culvert is located on Highway 17 east of Cobden, Ontario.
Looby was the Prime Contractor that worked directly for the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (“MTO”), Eastern Region.
Challenges and Solutions
After commencing the project in May of 2020, Looby encountered some unforeseen ground water conditions at the Barbut Creek Culvert site delaying the project and pushing the project completion of this site to 2021. At the Muskrat Creek site in 2020, Looby completed the advanced works in order to build the detour road widenings. Due to major flooding issues during the past construction season, stage 2 of the Muskrat Creek Culvert was unable to be completed, which has pushed the anticipated contract completion date into 2022.
Looby continued to work against the challenging geotechnical issues and high ground water levels which delayed the project in 2020 and 2021. Looby completed grading and paving operations at Barbut Creek in order to open the highway to traffic prior to winter shut-down.