Highway renewal to proceed: Ashton

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This article was published 26/11/2011 (5445 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MANITOBA will undertake an ambitious highway-building and renewal program next year despite being hit with a massive road and bridge repair job due to the 2011 flood.

Infrastructure and Transportation Minister Steve Ashton said Friday the work will include upgrades to Highway 75, the province’s key link to the United States, as well as continued progress on the construction of CentrePort Canada Way, northwest of the city.

Ashton said he could not say how much the province is prepared to spend on road projects in the coming year. That will be revealed in the province’s spring budget.

But he said the daunting infrastructure repair bill from this year’s floods — which is still being tabulated as dozens of damaged bridges continue to be assessed — won’t stand in the way of a significant highway renewal program in 2012.

“We’re not going to be cutting back on major construction projects this year,” Ashton told reporters Friday after addressing the annual meeting of the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association.

In each of the past two years, the province has dedicated $366 million to capital road projects.

The government is in a financial position to carry out new infrastructure projects, in part, because a federal disaster financial assistance program covers up to 90 per cent of road and bridge infrastructure damaged by flooding.

In keeping with a practice begun under the Doer administration, the province on Friday gave the heavy construction industry several months notice of many of the key road projects it is contemplating for the next construction season.

Folks driving to Grand Beach or Victoria Beach next summer can expect to be slowed down as the province paves 28 kilometres of Highway 59 north of Broken Head Ojibway First Nation to Highway 11. There will also be paving work along the Trans-Canada Highway near Portage la Prairie.

Ashton thanked members of the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association Friday for their efforts in battling the spring flood, as well as for building in record time a six-and-a-half-kilometre emergency-outlet channel from Lake St. Martin.

“You came through for Manitobans in 2011,” he told the association.

The outlet channel was dug to help lower super-high water levels on both Lake St. Martin and adjoining Lake Manitoba.

Chris Lorenc, president of the heavy construction association, commended the province for its continued role in developing CentrePort. He predicted that Canada’s first inland port “will have the impact of magnificently transforming Manitoba’s economy into a global trading powerhouse.”

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca

Provincial projects

 

2012 federal and provincial highway projects:

Highway 75 reconstruction through Morris

Continued construction of roads and structures at CentrePort Canada Way

Intersection improvements at Highway 15 and Provincial Road 206 at Dugald

Paving a 15-km stretch of Highway 10 north of Brandon.

Other significant projects next year include:

Paving Trans-Canada Highway near Portage la Prairie

Paving 28 km of Highway 59 north of Broken Head Objibway First Nation

Paving 7.5 km of Highway 6 south of Grosse Isle

Paving 18 km of the Trans-Canada Highway's westbound lanes near Carberry

Paving 13.5 km of Highway 5 north of Riding Mountain

 

-- Source: Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation