Safety enhancements for south Perimeter

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This article was published 18/11/2019 (2383 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Drivers travelling on the south Perimeter Highway will be forced to reduce their speed and limit turns as part of interim safety enhancements for a section of the highway described as a death trap.

As part of the provincial government’s South Perimeter Highway Safety Plan, and in response to a recent fatal collision on the strip of roadway near the Brady Road Resource Management Facility, infrastructure minister Ron Schuler announced temporary safety enhancements for the Perimeter at Brady Road on Nov. 12.

“These are significant changes meant to improve safety for drivers who need to access the Brady Road Landfill and those who drive through the area,” Schuler said in a statement. “We understand these changes may be disruptive to some drivers, but we are still seeing too many collisions and near-misses in the area and need to take further steps to make the area safer in the interim while we build toward a long-term solution.”

In the morning of Oct. 25, a 19-year-old man from the RM of Rockwood was killed in a multiple vehicle collision on the south Perimeter Highway near Brady Road. RCMP said the victim had been travelling east on the Perimeter and was struck by a semi-truck that was also heading east. The impact caused the car to be pushed into another large truck also heading eastbound on the Perimeter.

According to the provincial government, safety measures, including lowering the speed limit to 80 km/h between provincial road 330 and Kenaston Boulevard; adding a deceleration lane on the paved shoulder west of the Brady Road turnoff; and prohibiting left turns onto the Perimeter from Brady Road were completed on Fri., Nov. 15.

The province will also temporarily install message boards and speed reader boards approaching the turnoff at Brady Road.

Earlier this year, the province blocked access to Brady Road north of the Perimeter Highway as part of its plan to reduce the number of entry points to the highway.

The cost of the safety upgrades are covered under the $19-million South Perimeter Safety Plan project, announced in fall 2018, according to the provincial government.

“They can’t come soon enough,” said Coun. Janice Lukes (Waverley West). “It probably is a death trap.”

Lukes said she hears concerns from constituents and residents in Waverley West, many of whom access the Perimeter at Kenaston Boulevard as a shortcut to other parts of south Winnipeg.

“The previous government knew that this needed to be done, and they did nothing. And this government, I would have liked to see it happen three, four years ago, but it’s happening and that’s good,” she said. “It’s long overdue.”

According to data provided to Lukes by the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service, between September 2018 and 2019, there were 59 collisions or incidents on the south Perimeter Highway between St. Anne’s Road and just west of Brady Road. In that same time period, on average, there was a collision or incident every six days.

Every day an estimated 800 vehicles access the Brady Road Resource Centre from the Perimeter Highway, and between 24,500 and 30,000 vehicles travel the Perimeter between Pembina Highway and PR 330 daily.

The province said it will build a service road for truck traffic at Waverley Street, south of the Perimeter, connecting to the landfill by fall 2020.

According to the province, the Waverley route was selected following consultation with local stakeholders and the City of Winnipeg, and chosen based on traffic flow, construction and operating costs, and to limit costs that “would be duplicated for subsequent road construction work in future.”

The province hopes to close the south Perimeter Highway turnoff onto Brady Road when the service road opens.

The province is currently in the midst of a South Perimeter Highway Design Study, and will be presenting its proposed functional design to the public at open houses on Dec. 10, 11, and 12.

“If Manitoba, the City, and the federal government are positioning Winnipeg to be a multi-modal, global transportation hub — and trucking is one of the major forms of transportation from the United States — this short term fix better be short term, and they better get on with the redesign,” Lukes said.