Freeway could save $450M

The new speedier bypass route through the city's proposed inland port could save truckers and motorists as much as $450 million in gas, time and accidents over the next 25 years.

A cost-benefit analysis done by the province as part of a pitch for federal infrastructure cash shows the new inland port expressway will immediately shrink the number of trucks on the west Perimeter Highway by about 40 per cent.

The new road, known as CentrePort Canada Way, recently won $212 million in funding from the province and Ottawa. It will connect the Perimeter Highway to Inkster Boulevard and funnel trucks through the new inland port, an 8,000-hectare intermodal industrial park around the airport.

The new freeway is CentrePort's first big marquee project, and it's designed to get trucks off some of Winnipeg's busiest roads while also luring more businesses to a cluster of truck, rail and air distribution services in the city's northwest corner.

CentrePort has been characterized by a lot of big promises -- 10,000 to 15,000 new jobs and as much as $12 billion in new investment over the next two decades as Winnipeg becomes a transportation hub.

But the project also comes with some big questions. It's not clear exactly how the province will cope with frequent spring flooding on Highway 75, the city's main route to the American border.

There are also no long-term traffic studies done on some of Winnipeg's truck routes like Kenaston Boulevard, so it's not clear how they'll be affected by increased truck traffic or better truck routes that bypass the centre of town.

And, in a city badly bisected by railroad tracks, many worry the plan to lure more businesses to the city and improve rail transportation could mean longer waits for motorists at rail crossings.

That question is top of mind for CentrePort Canada, the new agency set up to help build the inland port's infrastructure and woo businesses to it.

CentrePort president and CEO Diane Gray asked provincial Transportation Minister Steve Ashton last week to consider doing a big study of Winnipeg's rail system.

"We want to look at the broader question of rail movement around Winnipeg and its impact on traffic flows," said Gray.

Rail is a cheaper and greener way to move goods over long distances, so it ought to be encouraged. But that could also mean more calls for expensive underpasses like the new one at Kenaston or even the relocation of major rail yards that eat up real estate in the centre of town.

But Gray said her first priority is getting the new CentrePort Way designed and built, starting next spring.

Documents released by the province calculate the new route will save motorists and truckers at least $222 million in travel time, gas and vehicle operating costs and fewer accidents over 25 years. That's the most conservative scenario. CentrePort Canada Way could save motorists more like $450 million if traffic grows more than the minimum-base case.

The new route would also shave about 15 per cent off the cost of the time it takes truckers to get in and out of the city's northwest quadrant. That doesn't sound like a lot, but some transportation and logistics companies crow about two or three per cent time savings.

"That's huge in our business," said John Spacek, an assistant deputy minister at Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation.

Traffic models show the new expressway will shrink the average number of all vehicles on the western stretch of the Perimeter Highway by about 5,900 cars and trucks a day, a 35 per cent decrease. The number of trucks on the Perimeter Highway will shrink from an average of 5,400 a day to about 3,200 a day.

In 2021, when the new expressway will have been open for seven or eight years, it will handle double the average daily cars and trucks that the Perimeter does. And, it will have taken much of pressure off feeder routes into the airport area such as the Oak Point Highway and Saskatchewan Avenue.

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca

WHAT'S NEXT:

Servicing CentrePort

A blueprint for CentrePort's 20,000 acres is almost done, but the next hurdle is figuring out who pays to service the land with water, sewer and roads, which the City of Winnipeg figures will cost $40 million. Trouble is, a big chunk of the property is actually in the RM of Rosser and the two municipalities are arguing over an annexation deal.

Emerson border crossing

Think of this when next you head to Target -- the Emerson border crossing is the busiest one in Western Canada. It does $16 billion in trade traffic a year. A new joint Canada-U.S. study has just been launched to figure out what upgrades are needed to make it more efficient, especially for truckers hauling goods up Highway 75.

St. Norbert bypass

It's slow going for trucks on Highway 75 through residential St. Norbert south of the Perimeter Highway. For some time, the province has been pondering a bypass that would divert high-speed traffic off to the west and up to the Perimeter. That project was touted in a very general way in the province's pitch to Ottawa last year on the CentrePort concept, but provincial transportation staff say it's pretty far off in the future. There are some concept drawings but no cost estimates or specific designs.

Highway 75

When the province's busiest north-south highway was underwater for most of the spring, people started to wonder how the province could invest in a trade hub without major fixes to Highway 75. That's still an outstanding question and $85 million in federal and provincial money is earmarked for the answer. Will there be a bypass around flood-prone Morris or can the highway be raised at all around trouble spots?

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 14, 2009 B1