Interchange apprehension

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/06/2024 (477 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Overland flooding and a potentially hazardous intersection are among the concerns held by longstanding south Winnipeg garden centres as an interchange is built nearby.

“We flood now,” stated Ray DuBois, president of Ron Paul Garden Centre.

The retailer has occupied 2641 St. Mary’s Rd. since 1965. Recently, DuBois and staff have stacked company goods on pallets to shield them from pooling water.

DuBois blames changes at the St. Mary’s Road and Perimeter Highway intersection. The $135-million interchange project, announced in 2020, involves a diamond-style interchange with roundabouts on north and south sides.

A bridge structure will cross the Perimeter. Construction is ongoing.

“Just drive on the highway and then look down — they’ve put us in a bowl,” DuBois asserted, adding he’s raised his concerns with Coun. Markus Chambers (St. Norbert-Seine River).

Nearby residents have also sounded alarm bells.

“It’s been a continual concern since, I would say, early May,” Chambers told the Free Press. “As soon as the rain comes, the issue or concern about flooding is increased.”

It’s been a wet spring: Winnipeg has logged 202.6 millimetres of precipitation in May and June, Environment Canada data show. Chambers believes berms created along the south Perimeter Highway have impacted the flow of water and brought about overland flooding.

The excess water creates potholes and “washboard conditions,” the City of Winnipeg councillor relayed. “It’s a breeding ground for mosquitoes, it’s stagnant water, it’s smelly.”

Chambers has tabled a motion for the next Riel community committee meeting, to be held Monday, asking the city to devise a plan ensuring “where it rains, the road drains and the road sustains, as opposed to what we’re experiencing now.”

The city has done some ditching in the area, Chambers said, adding Winnipeg and the province need to “come on the same page” to address constituents’ issues.

“All parties are working together to alleviate the drainage concerns,” a provincial government spokesperson wrote in an email. This includes assisting the contractor with additional pumping and monitoring the area, the spokesperson added.

Meantime, Lacoste Garden Centre’s co-owner has further concerns about the interchange — namely, an uncontrolled intersection.

“I really think that this is going to be an overwhelming problem and a dangerous situation,” said Jordan Hiebert, pointing to an interchange development map he keeps at Lacoste.

He’s fretting over an intersection planned to connect the area garden centres with the Perimeter Highway and greater Winnipeg area. It’s labelled at the crossroads of Provincial Road 200 and Seniuk Road.

Hiebert imagines customers and staff will use the intersection as they leave Lacoste. However, they’ll be turning left on a highway with no traffic lights for support.

Vehicles from bedroom communities such as St. Adolphe may travel up the highway to reach Winnipeg.

“This is a lot of traffic in the spring — tons,” said Hiebert, who mentioned customers at Ron Paul and St. Mary’s Nursery & Garden Centre.

More than 100 customers pass through Lacoste per hour during a busy spring day, Hiebert said. Upwards of 100 seasonal staff are on payroll.

Meanwhile, some 20 trucks (semis and those delivering aggregates such as gravel) travel to Lacoste in a given spring week, Hiebert added.

“That’s a slow-moving vehicle when you have to stop, and then you have to move,” Hiebert said. “It’s dangerous for them, it’s dangerous for the people coming this way.”

He’s raised his concerns with Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure. The provincial department has been a great communicator, but isn’t budging on adding traffic lights, Hiebert relayed.

MTI will monitor traffic volumes, a government spokesperson wrote in a statement. “Should future volumes warrant signalization, it would be addressed at that time.”

The speed limit will reduce to 60 km/h north of the intersection, dropping from a potential 80 km/h.

“What are you going to wait for, an accident?” Hiebert said. “We can’t afford that” both safety-wise and reputation-wise.

He fears traffic will be backlogged exiting the garden centre strip, disincentivizing customers.

There’s another exit off St. Mary’s Road to PR 200, called Viking Road, but that’s another left turn to the city, Hiebert noted.

“We are going to miss the day-by-day number of cars that pass by the frontages of our buildings,” said Carla Hrycyna, co-owner of St. Mary’s Nursery.

With the old set-up, vehicles could turn onto St. Mary’s Road directly from the Perimeter.

The interchange now reroutes traffic onto a new stretch of PR 200 leading to the Perimeter. St. Mary’s Road will abruptly end to vehicle traffic, which transitions into an active transportation path, according to a public map.

St. Mary’s Road’s garden centre strip is a destination, Hrycyna noted, adding she believes planners have done well to make the businesses accessible.

Both she and Hiebert said change at the St. Mary’s/Perimeter intersection was needed. It has been the site of deadly collisions.

The interchange was originally planned to open to traffic in June. The province now expects the interchange will open to traffic this fall and full construction will be completed in late summer 2025.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com