A crest of the Assiniboine River is expected to occur sometime next week.

Doug McMahon, Manitoba Infrastructure assistant deputy minister of water management, said in a flood update Monday evening the expectation is a crest on the Assiniboine at Portage la Prairie will occur sometime between April 12-17. The river remains partly ice covered downstream of Portage.

Manitoba Infrastructure's Hydrologic Forecast Centre latest flood bulletin released Tuesday evening said ice remained in place on the lower Assiniboine near Baie St. Paul.

"We are expecting the ice cover to move out probably by the end of the week," McMahon said. "The Portage Diversion is being operated to handle all flows in excess of 5,000 cfs, so we don't pop the ice cover and induce some ice jams."

"Once the ice moves freely downstream we'll gradually start to increase flows on the lower Assiniboine River, to to 10,000 to 12,000 cfs," continues McMahon. "The local jurisdictions are going to be notified when we plan to do that."