Report recommends pumping $3.5 M into reopening Portage and Main to pedestrians

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This article was published 13/10/2017 (2947 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s the windiest intersection in Canada and our most iconic, but Mayor Brian Bowman says it has also been our most neglected.

Bowman says next week the city will begin to change decades of neglect at the site where Portage Avenue and Main Street meet.

The mayor said a report that will be presented to executive policy committee on Wednesday — and a week later to city council — recommends the city create a $3.5 million Portage and Main capital project, set up a Portage and Main working group made up of civic officials and private sector property owners, and pump money into work at street level and below ground that mixes in with the money already being spent by private property owners on the four corners of the intersection.

As well, the report recommends the city ask for proposals from architectural and engineering companies to make sure the project works with private stakeholders to look at having pedestrians cross the intersection again and to get a preliminary cost estimate.

“The recommended recommendations coming forward in this report are a clear signal that Portage and Main renewal above and below grade are a priority for the city,” Bowman said at a press conference on Friday announcing the report.

“Public assets owned by the City of Winnipeg have been neglected for years at this intersection. While significant private sector investment is underway at this intersection, the city has left its assets, both above grade and below grade, to suffer from little maintenance or upkeep.

“This isn’t fair to property owners and it isn’t fair to the thousands of additional people now calling downtown their home.”

Bowman said while the city has done little to the site since pedestrians were funnelled underground starting in 1979, the owners of the Richardson Building are planning to rejuvenate its plaza outdoors, while the owners of 201 Portage Avenue are working on its side of the concourse below the street.

Bowman said the project would also see the city take a step-by-step phased-in approach to bring pedestrians back on the street while looking at ways to mitigate the impact on traffic.

“It is a signal to the private sector that the era of neglect of city-owned assets here at this intersection is finally coming to an end,” the mayor said.

“It is, in the end, a commitment to the heart of our city.”

Bowman said while he knows not everyone agrees pedestrians should be put back on the street at the intersection, he noted that part of his mandate when he was elected was to reintroduce people to the street.

“Now is not the time to hitch a ride in a DeLorean.”

Coun. Jeff Browaty, a long-time critic of the idea of allowing pedestrians to cross one of the city’s major intersections, said motorists across the city will suffer if cash for roadwork is redirected to Portage and Main.

“Today we’re learning that $3.5 million for 2018, instead of going towards our roads, towards our parks, towards all of the various pieces of infrastructure — $2 million specifically that should be for our regional streets — instead will now be spent on fixing Portage and Main,” Browaty said.

“It doesn’t actually move one step towards opening Portage and Main by the looks of things… I don’t believe what is being proposed here is under the description of what I would describe as road repairs. This is really a $2-million cut. A $2-million reduction on our regional streets. They cover the vast majority of traffic that goes out there everyday.

“And they need a lot of work right now.”

Browaty said the city should do the work, pay for it up front, but then get it back over time from access agreements with the property owners at the intersection who benefit from having the underground connection to each other.

“The reason the property owners at Portage and Main can charge the rents they do is because they are connected to the underground. They receive tremendous benefit from it. Taxpayers shouldn’t be paying for that.”

“I don’t think this is the priority of Winnipeggers at all.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

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