SPECIAL REPORT: Flood detours cost truckers time, money

WINNIPEG — With more showers on the way and water levels expected to rise this weekend, there’s a good chance that Flood ’09 could be one of the largest in Manitoba’s history.

The provincial government warns that this pending Red River flood could shape up to be the fourth most severe in the last 200 years — after the massive 1997 flood and the devastating 1952 and 1926 events (the latter is biggest Manitoba flood ever recorded as the water level in Fort Garry rose 2.7 meters in 24 hours).

For the most part, residents in Morris and surrounding communities are bunkering down instead of evacuating, CTV reports. Due to the closure of Highway 75 — the main link to the U.S. border — there’s an eerie calmness in towns along the route like Morris that are used to a high volume of trucks passing through.

So where are the trucks?

"There’s roughly a 100 km detour to get to the border," said Bob Dolyniuk, GM of Manitoba Trucking Association in an interview with todaystrucking.com. 

Things could get worse for travelers and
homeowners in S. Manitoba this weekend.

And that detour, added up, is costing trucking companies, collectively, “somewhere in the neighborhood of a quarter million dollars a day,” Dolyniuk estimates. “When you consider the border is an hour’s drive from Winnipeg, and you got a 100-km detour, you’re virtually doubling your distance and cost.”

TRUCKS NOT AMPHIBIOUS: 

“We don’t have too many choices,” Dolyniuk says of the detours, “trucks are not amphibious."

Although media focus has primary been on Red River and Highway 75, Dolyniuk points out that there are “dozens of other places throughout the province where roads are closed because of flooding and water over the roadways.”

Plus, there are spring road restrictions to contend with — restrictions that won’t be lifted anytime soon, he says. “So we’re dealing with spring road restrictions and we’re dealing with flooded roads. There are some communities that are virtually closed off, you can’t get in, so anything going to those communities is not moving."

Yet Tom Payne Jr. of Payne Transportation says that they haven’t had to park any trucks. Even with the detours, which Payne admits inconvenience his drivers and adds a bit of cost, Payne says his business hasn’t been significantly interrupted. “Everything is on schedule so far, we’ve had no problems,” he tells us.

But Mother Nature is unpredictable and things are far from over.

With Red River expected to crest over Morris this weekend, contingency plans have been put in place. “We’ve been talking with Canada Customs and U.S. Customs and Manitoba Transportation," Dolyniuk says. “If 75 at Morris or Emerson get closed off, there’s a contingency plan. And there’s also a Plan B if Plan A doesn’t work.”

On top of all this is the fact that Manitoba’s winters have a habit of pummeling roads, so it remains to be seen how much the flood will exasperate winter road damage.

(For some helpful tips on how to keep equipment safe from wheel well-deep waters, be sure to click here).