Proposed bridge over Pembina Highway would be ‘huge’

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This article was published 28/04/2017 (3437 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Bicyclists and pedestrians heading to a Winnipeg Blue Bomber game or classes at the University of Manitoba may be only two years away from having their own $12 million bridge across Pembina Highway.

The Bishop Grandin Walk Bike Bridge Over Pembina Highway project is expected to open in spring 2019, and the city is holding a workshop to get feedback from the public next month.

Coun. Janice Lukes (South Winnipeg — St. Norbert) called the project on Friday “huge, huge, huge.

“There will be a bridge for rapid transit buses (over Bishop Grandin) and a bridge for bicyclists and pedestrians and then, when the bicyclists get to Barley Brothers (restaurant), they all go up and over from berm to berm across Pembina Highway,” Lukes said on Friday.

“There is a big push for this. It is applicable for federal funding.”

Lukes, a longtime bike path advocate, said it will also make it safer for bicyclists in an area of heavy traffic and multiple lanes, noting there had already been one bike fatality there.

Dick Stevenson, 69, was cycling to a Winnipeg Blue Bomber exhibition game in 2014, when he died after being struck by a car on Pembina Highway near Bishop Grandin Boulevard.

The new bridge will connect the Bishop Grandin Greenway across Pembina Highway so bicyclists will be able to cycle from the Sage Creek subdivision all the way to Fort Whyte Alive.

Lukes said the bridge will also make it easier for people in neighbourhoods nearby to get to new Southwest Rapid Transitway stations where they can securely park their bikes.

The city says in a FYI section of a report that the bridge may look “pretty long” because it has to be built using current accessibility standards. As well, it is being built with safety in mind by using lighting on the bridge and connecting pathways and making sure bridge users will be visible to motorists and sidewalk users.

Construction is expected to begin as early as March if city council approves and funds it.

The workshop is being held in the Sky Deck Event Centre at the south end of Investors Group Field, on May 11, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Free parking is available in the university’s U lot at the south end of the stadium. For more information go to www.winnipeg.ca/BishopWalkBikeBridge

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca