‘It is really dangerous’

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This article was published 23/10/2023 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A parent living in a new Waverley West subdivision says it is dangerous for elementary and high school students to walk to two new schools because there are areas on their route without sidewalks.

Both Pembina Trails Collegiate and Bison Run School opened their doors last month in the middle of an area that will be a neighbourhood eventually, but is now a busy construction zone with large, open spaces where several apartment buildings and houses are currently being built or soon will be.

There are long stretches of road with no sidewalks.

“It is really dangerous,” said Jessie Zhang, whose son is a student at the collegiate.

“Right now students are walking on the grass, but soon there will be snow packed there and they will have to walk on the icy and snowy road with all the vehicles. There are even construction vehicles parking along the road and my child and others have to walk there with all the vehicles driving by.

“The school sent out a note saying they are working on it, but we’ve seen no sign of it.”

Pembina Trails Collegiate, located on Frontier Trail, has 747 Grade 9-11 students and will add Grade 12 classes next year. Bison Run is next door on Frontier Road and has 417 students from kindergarten to Grade 8.

There is a sidewalk in front of both schools, but ends at the end of the block at a roundabout.

There is a lot of ongoing construction in the immediate area and, in recent days a large pile of gravel has forced two-way traffic to share a single lane with students, who have no other pedestrian route as they make their way south on Frontier Road before heading east on Lee Boulevard and then south on Waverley Street — neither of which have sidewalks — to get to the residential area around John Angus Boulevard.

It adds up to almost a kilometre with no sidewalks.

“The situation does not happen only in my family,” Zhang said. “Hundreds of other families face the same issue (and) danger.”

Waverley West city councillor Janice Lukes acknowledges that the situation is not ideal, and suggested it is more common for parents in new neighbourhoods to be upset when their children are forced to attend schools further away from home until new facilities are built.

“It is virtually unheard of that brand-new schools are built in areas that are not developed with housing and people living in an area,” Lukes said.

“I can’t think of any other development where this happened, so that brings forward big sidewalk-pathway issues.”

Lukes said sidewalks haven’t been installed yet because heavy equipment involved in nearby construction would quickly destroy them. She said sidewalk construction is scheduled next summer.

Winnipeg Transit is operating special buses to get students to school in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon, she said.

“Regular transit only goes where people go and there are no people there yet; the area is not developed. It is still fields,” she said.

“When it is all done this neighbourhood will be the most accessible in the city for pedestrians, bicycles and vehicles, but it isn’t there yet. It is difficult. I’ve had a lot of calls on this.”

Lisa Boles, superintendent and CEO of Pembina Trails School Division, said there are ongoing discussions with both the city and developer about the importance of infrastructure development in the community around the schools.

“Historically, there are fully developed areas of the city, and in Pembina Trails School Division, where there are no sidewalks present by design,” Boles said in a written statement.

“Pembina Trails Collegiate is located in a developing subdivision where construction is still taking place. Depending on the development agreements in place, some infrastructure is the responsibility of the developer and some may be the responsibility of the City of Winnipeg.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca