Highway upgrades to begin this spring

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This article was published 21/01/2019 (2659 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Oak Bluff residents and those travelling through the community can expect to see highway safety improvements made starting this spring.

Erica Vido, Manitoba Infrastructure director of transportation systems planning and development and project manager for the South Perimeter Highway design study, said the left-hand turn lane will be improved at the PTH 3/McGillivray Boulevard and Perimeter Highway intersection this year. A left lane turn signal was added last fall for traffic turning north from PTH 3.

She said the service road that runs adjacent to the Perimeter Highway in the Oak Bluff industrial park will also be upgraded and extended to cross over a rail line to meet with Wilkes Avenue on the west side of the existing interchange.

Vido said the exact location of the junction at Wilkes isn’t finalized and she and Infrastructure staff are consulting with the RM of Headingley council on this to see if a new road is being constructed on the north side of Wilkes that would connect to the service road.

Vido said there is enough land within the provincial right-of-way to accommodate the service road extension.

“We’d like this work to be done by 2020,” Vido said, adding that the project cost will first have to be approved by the government.

The RM of Macdonald council had expressed concern about the ability of municipal service roads that parallel the Perimeter Highway to carry additional semitrailer trucks and other vehicle traffic. Vido said Infrastructure staff are consulting with the Macdonald and Headingley councils on the south Perimeter Highway design plans.

To date, she hasn’t received many complaints about traffic concerns due to the median access closures that were done at 26 points along the south Perimeter on Oct. 30, 2018.

“It’s been fairly quiet.”

The highway changes in Headingley and Macdonald are part of a large overall design plan that will eventually see the south Perimeter Highway from Portage  to Fermor Avenues become a freeway with limited access points. The plan also includes a western bypass of the St. Norbert neighbourhood from PTH 75, south of PR 24 and running north to the Perimeter Highway at Kenaston Blvd.

A series of three open houses were recently held in southwest and southeast Winnipeg and Oak Bluff hosted by the project team of Infrastructure representatives and project consultant WSP. Maps showing the short- and long-term designs were displayed and attendees were able to ask questions and fill out comment forms.

According to the project team, information gathered at the open houses will be used to evaluate the proposed design, and another series of public open houses will be held in the spring or summer prior to the design being finalized near the end of this year.

The long-term design shows a four-lane divided highway, that could be expanded to six lanes, with a depressed median.  New interchanges are proposed for construction at the current McGillivray, St. Mary’s and St. Anne’s Road intersections among other locations and the Portage, Wilkes Ave. and Pembina Highway interchanges improved.

Options for diamond and cloverleaf interchanges for the south Perimeter and PTH 3/McGillivray are shown with the new interchange located southeast of the current intersection on what is now primarily agricultural land. Don McRitchie, with Manitoba Infrastructure, said this would allow room for new business and commercial development along the highways.

According to information in the design study, a total of 22 connections to, and crossings of the South Perimeter Highway will be reviewed. This includes all roadway, railway, active transportation, and water course crossings and connections.

For more information on the South Perimeter Highway design study, see www.gov.mb.ca/mit/hpd/pth100