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Feds give millions to upgrade Hwy. 1

Four-lanes for Trans-Canada stretch

By: Bruce Owen

Posted: 11/7/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

The Harper government's money train stopped briefly in Headingley on Friday to fork out half of the $11.3 million cost of upgrading a dangerous stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway.

The much-anticipated reconstruction includes a four-lane, 1.7 kilometre section of the highway between the John Blumberg Sports Centre and the Husky station, divided and widened to reduce the risk of deadly head-on collisions. Work is to begin in the summer of 2011 once the province secures needed frontage property from landowners.

The project was announced by Premier Greg Selinger and Charleswood-St.James-Assiniboia MP Steven Fletcher. It was one of several similar federal economic stimulus announcements held across the country in the wake of poor employment numbers that left the Harper government short of its job-creation targets.

Ottawa and the province have agreed to split the cost of the highway project, which is expected to create 170 jobs.

Selinger and Fletcher said the highway-widening project has been on the to-do list for a long time.

"This investment will turn a four-lane undivided highway into a four-lane divided highway," Selinger said. "With 17,000 vehicles a day going by here, it should make a significant difference on safety."

The upgrade has been in the works since a crash Oct. 12, 2007 that killed Wayne Adair, 41, Serena Adair, 37, and Garreth McDonald, 22. The couple was killed after McDonald's eastbound vehicle side-swiped a taxi, then crossed the highway into oncoming traffic and hit the Adairs' Cadillac SUV, which burst into flames.

McDonald was impaired and was driving twice the 70 km/h speed limit. At the time of the crash, RCMP said there had been 101 collisions in less than two years on the same stretch of highway. Since then, RCMP have recorded more collisions from minor fender-benders to the more serious, but none fatal.

"We all know, unfortunately, people who have been killed or injured on this stretch of highway," Fletcher said. "(The reconstruction project) will leave a lasting impression not only for the economy in the short term, but also in the lives it will save in the long term."

Work includes new pavement, a raised median, turning lanes, wider intersections and new service roads. The speed limit will stay the same. Future plans call for a divided highway west of the Husky station toward Headingley Correctional Institution.

The announcement came on the same day as statistics were released showing Canada's economy shed 43,000 jobs in October, dropping the total number of employed to 16,794,800. That's at least 331,000 jobs less than the target the federal government set in its January budget for this point in the year.

In Manitoba, the economy shed another 3,400 jobs, according to Statistics Canada. The agency said there were 2,800 fewer part-time and 600 fewer full-time workers in the province in October than in September. The losses pushed up the provincial unemployment rate to 5.8 per cent from 5.3 per cent.

-- With files from the Canadian Press

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 7, 2009 A6

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