in March 1968. The construction was a major undertaking with 76.5 million cubic metres (2.75 billion cubic feet) of earth excavated—more than what was moved for the Suez Canal. At the time, the project was the second largest earth-moving project in the world – next only to the construction of the Panama Canal. The total cost at the time was $63 million (CAD), equivalent to approximately $505 million today. Design The Floodway protection system includes more than just the channel to the east of the city, but also the dikes along the river through Winnipeg and the West Dike extending to the southwest from the floodway inlet. Primarily as a result of the Floodway, the city suffered little flood damage. After the 1997 flood, a 2004 re-assessment of the floodway and its channel capacity indicated that 2,550 m3/s (90,000 cfs) could be passed through the floodway during a major flood, but this is considered above the design capacity as it would submerge bridges, and the decision was made to further expand the floodway. Although the term "floodway gates" is used for the control structure, this is a misnomer as the gates are actually on the Red River as it enters the city and not on the floodway channel. When Red River flows exceed what can safely be handled by the river channel within the city, the gates begin to close by rising up out of the river bed, to the degree needed, restricting water flow into the city to manageable amounts. The resulting upstream back-up of the Red River then flows into the adjacent floodway entrance, diverting the excess flow that could not be safely handled by the river channel within the city. Under flood conditions, even when the floodway is in operation, the Red River within the city will still carry greater than normal amounts of water and some local flood mitigation measures still may be required within the city. The rise in river levels upstream of the gates when in operation needs to be contained by a diking system. The West Dike which extends to near the village of Brunkild MB is the limiting factor on the volume of water that can be diverted around the city, as a result of the extremely low grades in the area. This dike was urgently extended by 42 km from its previous western terminus near Domain MB in 1997 to prevent