Fixes planned for Hwy. 75 near Morris

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This article was published 13/04/2017 (3067 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Pallister government is going to straighten out some serious curves in Highway 75 immediately south of Morris and also flood-proof the highway in the Morris area by building it higher.

Two other major components of a study on ways to improve that crowded portion of the highway are the elimination of traffic lights and rural access roads on the south Perimeter.

Infrastructure Minister Blaine Pedersen told reporters Wednesday the province will add several feet to the height of Highway 75 around Morris.

“You don’t have to close 75 — it will be flood-proof,” he said. 

“We’re going to redo the dike so the highway goes over the dike and down into Morris.”

The multi-year project begins in 2017-18 with $21 million worth of work. Already, the minister noted, “there’s a huge pile of dirt there.”

The northbound lanes that are closer to the Red River will be built up from St. Jean to Morris by 2020, and the section from Morris to Aubigny will follow when that work is done.

Pedersen said that everyone who drives Highway 75 is familiar with curves south of town. The project will straighten them out both northbound and southbound, he said.

“There’s a number of curves coming in — we’re going to straighten out a couple of the curves,” he said. 

Cabinet last week approved the expropriation of two unspecified properties south of Morris whose owners had declined to sell.

Two other parcels of land had been acquired for the project, the order-in-council said.

Pedersen told reporters his department spent less than expected on highways in the past year, but explained that “part of that was the timing of the projects.”

Infrastructure will spend $502 million on highways this year, and $500 million a year for the next four years, the minister said.

“We keep it at a steady rate.”

Asked about megaprojects to build bypasses of Headingley and St. Norbert, Pedersen noted, “We will not be moving forward on either one of them.”

His focus is on the needs on the south Perimeter: “Anyone who’s driven the south Perimeter knows it’s needing a complete rebuild.”

“We’re doing a study on the south Perimeter. The entire study is about access, about overpasses so we can remove the traffic lights,” and deal with safety issues over the rural roads which access the Perimeter, he said. “There’s a number of rural access roads on a high-speed interchange.”

The province would look at St. Norbert as part of the study, but the south Perimeter is the priority, Pedersen said.

In other infrastructure news, Pedersen said, he’ll be closing the Grace Lake gravel runway airport in The Pas within three months.

It will save the province $250,000 a year and its two staff will be transferred while making land available for development adjacent to The Pas.

The Pas is the only community in Manitoba with two airports, he said. The Clearwater airport is much larger and is the town’s choice, Pedersen said.

New Democrat Amanda Lathlin raised the issue in question period, imploring Pedersen to keep Grace Lake open.

She and her daughter both have been medevaced out of Grace Lake, Lathlin said, noting the Clearwater airport is an $80 cab ride and another 30 minutes away.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca