St. Andrews Locks and Dam

 dam, lock (water navigation)

www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/ouest-western/ebsa-sald/index-eng...
Situated in a park-like setting, the facility has many components which include an underwater fixed dam, a moveable dam, a lock, a roadway over the dam connecting Highway 44, a pedestrian walkway, and a fish ladder.

•In the late 1880’s the City of Winnipeg lobbied to improve navigation on the Red River. This effort brought about construction of the St. Andrews Lock and Dam.

•It was built to flood Lister Rapids to a depth of 2.74 m (9 feet) to allow passage of deep draught vessels.

•SALD was officially opened by Prime Minister Sir Wilfred Laurier in 1910.

The Dam
SALD is a unique “Camere” style dam using moveable curtains consisting of narrow horizontal strips of wood hinged together, which are raised or lowered to control water flows. Invented by French engineer M. Camere, this type of dam was popular in western Europe in the late nineteenth century. The dam has been designated a “National Historic Site” and a “National Engineering Historic Site” by the Canadian Society of Civil Engineering.

•Steel trusses approximately 40 m long span between the seven 15 m high concrete piers.

•The piers are joined at the bottom by a 6 m high by 11 m wide concrete sill or fixed dam.

•There are 15 steel frames per span which are hung from the trusses.

•The roadway over the dam also goes across the lock. The speed limit is 50 km/h and the road has a load restriction of 36 tonnes


The Lock•The lock operates 16 hours a day, 7 Days a week, between the end of May and mid-October depending on flow conditions on the Red River.

•Each season hundreds of vessels and thousands of passengers lock through at SALD, the only lock on the Prairies.

•The lock is 11 m deep, 62 m long and 13.7 m wide.

•Boats are raised or lowered approximately 4.3 m when they pass through the lock.

•The lock is drained and filled by gravity. It takes about 20 minutes to lock through St. Andrews.

•Two wooden gate sets, made of Douglas Fir, are at each end of the lock. Their combined dry weight is over 200 tonnes.

•Tour boats operate between Selkirk and the City of Winnipeg.


The CurtainsEach of the 89 curtains is 4 m long and 2.1 m wide and consists of 50 individually sized Douglas Fir laths held together with brass hinges and pins. During the navigation season the curtains are individually rolled up to increase flow, or rolled down to restrict flow, depending on daily water flow rates in the river.