Trans-Canada overpass at Carberry to cost $100 million: premier

CARBERRY — An overpass on the Trans-Canada Highway north of Carberry will be completed by 2030 and cost $100 million, Premier Wab Kinew announced Thursday.

Construction on the intersection at Highway 5 will start in 2027 and take 2.5 years to complete, Kinew told about 50 people at the Carberry Community Memorial Hall.

“We heard loud and clear the response,” Kinew said. “Now we’re back here with something that we think fits the bill.”

The crowd gave the premier a standing ovation.

The decision to build an overpass, announced in Tuesday’s throne speech, was made after the community demanded the government scrap its preferred option of a restricted crossing U-turn, or RCUT. Residents said it would be confusing for drivers and difficult to navigate.

“Hopefully, this is proof that we listen,” Kinew said.

Design work must be completed which is why construction won’t start until 2027, he said, adding the overpass could be completed as early as 2029.

“We’re very, very confident that we can do this in a way that’s going to guarantee safety, guarantee usability, for you, the folks who use it,” Kinew said.

The intersection has been a focal point of safety concerns since June 2023, when a bus full of seniors from the Dauphin area, headed to the Sand Hills Casino south of Carberry, was hit by a semi-truck. Seventeen seniors were killed.

Debra Steen, one of the people who opposed the RCUT, said she never really thought the community would get an overpass.

“This means the world. We’re beyond happy,” Steen said. “They listened, they heard us and they’re putting in the safest alternative.”

The RCUT was a “recipe for disaster,” she said, adding the overpass is the best way to reduce the chance of an collision caused by human error.

Kinew thanked the community for its input at several open houses, which at times included residents yelling at provincial staff and consultants who pitched the RCUT model.

Residents also held a rally near the intersection in May and gathered more than 2,100 signatures in opposition to the RCUT.

Kinew scrapped the RCUT in July, saying the province would take a fresh look at the project.

The RCUT design would have forced drivers heading straight or turning left from Highway 5 to turn right before crossing over three lanes and making a U-turn 900 metres later. Drivers turning left from the Trans-Canada would have been able to turn at the intersection. It would have been only the second RCUT built in Canada.

Kinew said Thursday the overpass and RCUT are similar in terms of safety, although the RCUT would have cost $20 million.

“When that RCUT was dismissed, or maybe identified by the community as not being the right fit, that left one option in terms of safety,” Kinew said.

Kinew told reporters an overpass is in a “whole other category of increased safety,” compared to traffic lights or a widened median.

He said he “would love” the federal government to help pay for the project.

“No federal commitment today, but the hope is that we’ll be able to work together,” he said.

Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Lisa Naylor said details of the project still have to be ironed out. She wasn’t able to answer if the access roads next to the highway would be affected.

The province will buy pieces of land next to the intersection from owners at “fair market value,” Naylor said.

“It’s fair to say there will be some disruption during construction … but it’s a short-term pain for long-term gain.”

Carberry Mayor Ray Muirhead said the entire community is thankful for the overpass.

“I firmly believe this overpass will save lives,” Muirhead said. “This is big time for our community.”

Muirhead said he remembers advocating to the province for an overpass back in 1989 when he became a councillor.

Ray Drayson, reeve of the Rural Municipality of North Cypress-Langford, where the intersection is located, called the overpass a “big time improvement.”

It also shows that the province took notice of the community’s opposition, he said.

“They’ve heard the community on this, and they’ve listened,” Drayson said.

— Brandon Sun