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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

City studying ways to widen Kenaston

By: Mary Agnes Welch and Bartley Kives

Posted: 12/17/2008 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

CITY hall is already studying ways to widen the most gridlocked parts of Kenaston Boulevard, a plan in the works before IKEA announced it is coming to town.The city has quietly commissioned an 18-month-study to look at where the road ought to be widened, how much it might cost and where the work should start.

The "functional plan," which is being done by the MMM Group, looks at a long stretch of the major artery from Ness Avenue near Polo Park to Taylor Avenue. The next step is detailed design and construction plans.

But the study doesn't include the small strip south of Taylor that Premier Gary Doer and Mayor Sam Katz pledged to widen Tuesday at a cost of $18.5 million. A functional plan has already been done on that section, and the right-of-way is already owned by the government. Adding two more lanes there is much simpler than buying up homes or expropriating land along the rest of Kenaston.

Kenaston's wildcard will be Kapyong Barracks -- the huge swath of military land that has stood vacant for years and is still in limbo.

Canada Lands, the Crown corporation that redevelops surplus barracks, is planning a neighbourhood there, and the city has long assumed it would snag a strip of Kapyong to build an extra lane or two for Kenaston. But that can't start until a court challenge by First Nations is resolved, which could take years.

Adding two lanes to one small section of Kenaston without widening the rest seems likely to create more traffic jams not fewer. But Paul McNeil, MMM's regional vice-president and a key consultant on the development of Waverley West, said that's not necessarily the case.

Many roads in Winnipeg shrink from six lanes to four and traffic still flows smoothly. And he said any widening on Kenaston would likely be done piecemeal anyway, so starting south of Taylor around the Ikea isn't so unusual.

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 17, 2008 A4

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