Hard to say as it hasn't been designed yet. They should have the Prime Consultant on board shortly (it will follow the final design outlined by the Province). I would imagine the construction area would encompass the highway up to the bridge and they would separate the lanes at that time.

The traffic volume at Portage and the Perimeter has seemingly gone up significantly in the last year or so. Not sure what the route cause is but it went from needing a wait to merge in but being reasonable to near impossible to merge in due to the volume of traffic in both lanes.

In terms of where the Portage to HWY 3 section falls in terms of priorities, it is really hard to read. Wilkes needs the ramps fixed in a bad way like 40 years ago and can't handle six lanes without a major rebuild. Roblin has already been rebuilt. Staging work for the Portage conversion has already been done. The Assiniboine bridge is likely the biggest question mark though as it will need work to add lanes. Not sure if that can be done with the existing structures or a replacement bridge will be needed. As it underwent major rehab in the last 10 years not sure that will be a priority. Also the rework last summer at HWY 3 seems to suggest that will be a status quo for 20+ years.

If we see the St Marys grade separation, the St Norbert by pass interchange and road and the Headingley bypass road get built in the next 20 years I will fall off my chair. I honestly do nothing we see anything beyond that other than maybe a traffic light for Gunn Rd and the addition of new access points east of Lag and between Pipeline and Hwy 7.

From the final report, the Initial Stage will include four lanes (two per direction) on PTH 100 with the exception of the segment of PTH 100 between Kenaston Boulevard and the Red River Crossing, which requires additional lanes to accommodate forecast traffic volumes.

If MIT segments the Initial Stage, might the workplan be done in 4 pieces:
1) St.Mary's to the Red River
2) Kenaston, (including closing Waverly), to the RR since the six lanes are part of the that. I include 330 diamond here because of access to the Brady landfill as the current Brady access intersection is closing and being replaced by access from Waverly. Once Waverly closes, need access from 330. Is the 330 diamond the plan to access Brady landfill - I assume here....

I put St. Anne (&Symington) and McGillvray as there own projects at 3 and 4.

I also wonder why MIT will use Waverly to access Brady landfill instead of using Kenaston as the interim. THen MIT could close Waverly right away.

Somewhat interesting, the Perimeter jersey barrier replacement by Portage Ave is continuous poured in place and steel reinforced concrete v the 6-8 long precast sections that are much more common. These also look like they are about 6 feet tall, easily twice the height of what is commonly used elsewhere.

Anyone have any insight into why this barrier is so tall? It seems to call into question the height of other similar safety barriers as I would guess that height wasn't just chosen to give someone some extra cash on a concrete supply contract.

I think it’s to completely prevent oncoming traffic from jumping over the barrier, just speaking from experience here in Ontario.

Weird that they're putting in such a heavy duty wall to replace an existing barrier on that segment when so many other parts of the Perimeter have nothing at all between the lanes other than a curb and small patch of grass.

There should be a cable barrier all along the Perimeter where there isn't a jersey barrier already. Something like that would have saved Cst. Allan Poapst's life, and I'm sure that wouldn't be the only one.

The smaller barriers are inadequate. Vehicles can go right over top. A lot of interstates have the higher barriers because they actually function.

Much like a barrier on a bridge. Vehicles can easily go over the top or right through them.

^ Fair enough. Although at least the HTCBs would be far better than the nothing that currently exists.

Incidentally, your comment reminds me of that time that Cindy Klassen's sister's car drove over the railing of the North Perimeter bridge some years back...

Even New Jersey now finds Jersey barriers substandard. Ontario tall wall is better.

https://www.tvo.org/article/how-onta...modern-highway

Perhaps this is a variation on Ontario tall wall.

Ontario pride right there ;) :cheers:

This definitely opens a huge implied liability issue for the province. If current barriers are known to be inadequate the sides of bridges also need to be made taller. There are been two fairly high profile issues locally with vehicles breaching the side barrier on bridges. The old Disrallei bridge one resulted in a death while the Perimeter one with Klassen's sister was likely better known and resulted in just injury, not death.

As much as new interchanges are needed the province would almost be wise to direct all funding to addressing this issue province wide before any new construction is started.

Then build those barriers... no argument here.

Depends on vehicle speed of course.

Projected deficit to be $2.9 billion next year for the province. I would think this puts a nail in the coffin of basically everything.

Is there anywhere in the world that isn't running a deficit right now? Doing nothing in this environment would be just about the stupidest thing to do. Building needed infrastructure one of the smartest things especially given that interest rates are going to be near zero for years. Construction costs are likely never going to be better than now either.

They knew all about the projected Covid defecit when they announced the 59N bridge and St Mary's/Perimeter interchange....they will be proceeding.

^ Yeah, these types of decisions are made on the basis of a decades-long return. I'm sure some discretionary spending decisions won't get the go ahead, but important ones still will. They can't shut the taps off completely.

Nice! Good to hear

Beyond those projects though. I would assume they had/have those funds lined up already.

If they're 2.9 bill in the hole. They will scale back spending on everything. Like basic highway maintenance, which they've been kept up decently well as of late. It will be nothing for the next number of years.

I predict a shutting of taps completely on anything that hasn't been already approved.

That sounds crazy. The economy needs stimulating not austerity measures.