Creativity with a backhoe clears fallen rocks from tourist-destination tunnel

Workers are shown clearing rocks from a tunnel on Caddy Lake in Manitoba on Wednesday June 18, 2025 in this handout photo provided by the Manitoba government. A well-known cavelike tunnel that attracts boaters to eastern Manitoba has reopened, thanks to some ingenuity involving a backhoe, a grappling bucket, and a crew removing fallen rock from a tight, gorge-like opening. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - Manitoba government (Mandatory Credit)

WINNIPEG — A well-known cave-like tunnel that attracts boaters to eastern Manitoba has reopened thanks to some ingenuity involving a backhoe, a grappling bucket and a crew removing fallen rock from a tight, gorge-like opening.

The tunnel between Caddy Lake and South Cross Lake, just north of the Trans-Canada Highway and west of the Ontario boundary, is the first of two cave-like tunnels along a popular water route for people in canoes, kayaks and small motorboats.

Over the winter, there was a rockfall just outside the entrance to the tunnel. That prompted the government to close the tunnel, inside Whiteshell Provincial Park, to motorized boats and advise paddlers to portage over land.

The province hired Toban Specialties Inc. to find a way to remove the fallen rock in a project that presented challenges. There were roughly 20 pieces of rock in the water, several metres down from the ground above, in an area not easily accessible. One of the larger rocks was more than a metre in length and a metre in diameter.

“The task wasn’t what you do every day, but these are projects that I like to focus on,” the company’s Mark Wiebe said in an interview.

Wiebe and his crew got a backhoe, via a nearby road, to a grassy area above the tunnel entrance. To extend the reach all the way to the rocks, the crew used chains to attach a grapple bucket — a device with a claw on one side and a bucket on the other — to the hoe and devised a way to make the grapple bucket open and close.

“We were able to manipulate it so that we could face it downwards, so the teeth are facing at the water, and we could put it over the top of a rock and close the grapple and we could pick it up,” Wiebe said.

“Similar to what you have in a wrecker yard, picking up vehicles.”

The work was done last week while the area was still suffering the effects of Manitoba’s early forest fire season. Backcountry travel and waterways in the area, including the tunnel, had been closed to the public due to the wildfire threat. The Caddy Lake area has since reopened

The operation was a success. Wiebe had backup plans, such as putting anchors in the rocks and hoisting them, but they weren’t needed.

The Manitoba government was impressed by the company’s approach.

“It’s definitely thinking outside of the box. It definitely shows some ingenuity from the contractor,” Joanne Podolchuk, a regional parks specialist with Manitoba Parks, said.

“The Caddy Lake tunnels are very loved in the area, and I think people will be happy that the rock has been safely removed and that access has been maintained again for that area.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 23, 2025

Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press