Province plans roundabout for Trans-Canada intersection

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This article was published 16/07/2020 (1935 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Construction of a roundabout at the junction of the Trans-Canada Highway and Provincial Trunk Highway 16 west of Portage la Prairie will begin next spring, Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister announced Thursday.

The roundabout will replace traffic lights and improve safety at the intersection where the Trans-Canada meets Hwy. 16 (the Manitoba section of the Yellowhead Highway) to the north and Provincial Road 305 to the south, Pallister said at a news conference in Winnipeg.

“That intersection’s been known for a long time to be a scary intersection,” he told reporters. “We know of many close calls, many stories of people in winter conditions, for example, coming down Hwy. 16 a little too fast and gliding right into the Trans-Canada Highway.”

There have been three fatalities and 22 reported traffic accidents at the junction in the last five years, the premier said.

There have been several studies of how to improve its safety; Pallister said one more focusing on a roundabout will be completed in October. It will be followed by two public consultations for Manitobans to give feedback before there are “shovels in the ground by next spring.”

The premier wouldn’t say how much the roundabout is expected to cost. Funding will come out of the $65 million the province has set aside for major highway projects in the $500-million Manitoba Restart Program.

A roundabout will be quicker to build and less costly to complete than an overpass, Pallister said.

Meanwhile, the province should be getting shovels in the ground this year, said NDP infrastructure critic Matt Wiebe.

“Today, the premier failed to announce any investments in infrastructure projects for this year,” Wiebe said in an email.

“A study will do nothing to make up for the thousands of jobs the premier cut in the middle of the pandemic. Rather than wasting time, the province should be working with Manitoba’s construction industry to immediately start projects that create good jobs and boost our economy.”

Pallister said the roundabout is an investment in a “principle economic corridor,” not far from the expanded J.R. Simplot Co. processing facility and the new Roquette Canada Ltd. pea protein plant.

“They are job-creating companies that rely on safe transport,” Pallister said. “They need an effective, safe transportation network to profit and to function. The people who work for them and the people who support them and their businesses do, too.”

The province recently implemented interim safety measures at the Portage intersection, including additional pavement markings, installation of a dedicated turning lane, improved signage and traffic signal upgrades, Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler said in a Thursday news release.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca