Manitoba Highways

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

Maybe this round about is a temporary solution. Manitoba temporary, so for like the next 70 years.

So are the traffic lights on Perimeter Highway.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by DavefromSt.Vital

^ It adds a diamond interchange for Simplot, Roquette, etc.

Heavy truck traffic.

It's one thing for the rabble to rise up, but at what point do these large industrial operations start demanding some basic level of service? By the time all is said and done Simplot and Roquette will have spent about a billion dollars on their plants west of Portage la Prairie, and their trucks are still going to have to play Frogger to get across the Trans Canada Highway?

[WildCake]

Originally Posted by esquire

It's one thing for the rabble to rise up, but at what point do these large industrial operations start demanding some basic level of service? By the time all is said and done Simplot and Roquette will have spent about a billion dollars on their plants west of Portage la Prairie, and their trucks are still going to have to play Frogger to get across the Trans Canada Highway?

Maybe the province should have given them less of a tax break/incentive to set up shop and used some of that cash to improve infrastructure to service them which would have also benefited all TCH users.

[Dengler Avenue]

Or make them pay for it. Put money where the mouth is.

[DavefromSt.Vital]

Technically, it is the Poplar Bluff Industrial Park run by the RM of Portage la Prairie.

The diamond interchange does not appear to be contemplated anytime soon. They recently lengthened the EB acceleration lane and the WB left turn lane.

[Corndogger]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

Or make them pay for it. Put money where the mouth is.

Or do a cost sharing agreement.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by Corndogger

Or do a cost sharing agreement.

That too.

[Corndogger]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

That too.

IIRC on one of the slides you posted the company behind them indicated that they had found savings to bring both interchanges down to $85 million. That's a good price and would probably end up being much less in the current environment. MB government must be perfectly fine with people dying and getting injured on its highways.

[esquire]

I can't remember off hand the last time there was any significant stretch of road that was twinned in Manitoba, but I suspect it was the Trans Canada Highway from Virden to the SK border roughly 20 years ago.

Does anyone know what the province's theoretical priority list is for the next couple of highways to be twinned? Even if it isn't likely to happen anytime soon? I'm assuming that it would probably be 59 north to Grand Beach (that one was at least discussed to some extent) and maybe 59 south beyond Ile des Chenes. And of course that persnickety last stretch of TCH before the Ontario border. But are there any other roads mentioned as candidates for twinning?

[1ajs]

highway 59 north of the city ^^

[Dengler Avenue]

Don’t forget 6. That will affect how the interchange between 101 and 6 will be built.

[Spocket]

It's really tough to say what the province's priorities are as far as twinning is concerned. They seem to actually be dedicated to turning the Perimeter into an actual freeway and the related works are new projects (St. Norbert and Headingley bypasses)

After that, there's a growing need for something that links Winkler/Morden to 75 but I suppose that's what I would do rather than what the province would.

I know the province had plans to build a new twinned highway out to Oakbank and I've heard tell that it's abandoned them. I honestly doubt that the entire concept is dashed because traffic is increasing and the current highways are woefully inadequate.

Otherwise, I'm not aware of any twinning plans the province has or even identified. It seems as though they're trying to twin 59 to the US border that's just what it looks like. It could also just be the highest traffic portions.

[Biff]

The next twinning is a small 2.5 km section of highway 6 off the Perimeter - likely next year.

After that the plan is 59 south from PR 210 to 52 in possible 2022 or 2023.

59 north to the beaches in planned in pencil but likely 20 years or so out.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by Spocket

I know the province had plans to build a new twinned highway out to Oakbank and I've heard tell that it's abandoned them. I honestly doubt that the entire concept is dashed because traffic is increasing and the current highways are woefully inadequate.

The Oakbank highway is not a "new" highway but rather a relocation/twining on HWY 15 from approximately the Perimeter to 206 (aka the north/south road through Oakbank, Dugald and Lorette). Due to the existing HWY 15 having minimal clearance on the CN main line expanding to the north is not a viable choice. Also the south side is significantly built up with no reserved right of way for expansion. Add in that HWY 15 features prominently on the most dangerous rail crossings list when it gets published for a variety of reasons. All these factors combined to make a relocation about 3-6 km to the north make a lot of sense, especially since the route could be found through primarily agricultural land with low exportation costs.

As for why the needed highway project died and why it could come back to life under Pallister is heavily tied into politics. The Oakbank area is as "blue" as you can get and would be the textbook definition of a "safe seat" for the Conservatives. Provincially I cannot find a record of them having ever voted for anything else. So when the 99 flood happened and spending got pulled from everywhere this highway project was iced. As the area isn't one that the NDP would benefit from when spending started back up it was never a priority, for mostly political reasons. With Pallister starting up highway spending I would imagine this gets back on the list as the third leg of the Winnipeg region highway expansion along with the St Norbert and Headingley by-passes. The side effect of these could be some true pressure on Winnipeg to get moving on building/improving its long purposed inner ring road, an idea that dates back to the original Perimeter days.

[esquire]

Oh yeah, I forgot about the Oakbank highway. There is a lot of growth in the bedroom communities NE of Winnipeg but they are so scattered that one new highway will help but won't fix the problem... it isn't like the Fraser Valley in BC where the communities are laid out like a bunch of pearls on a necklace.

Interesting re: twinning PTH 6. I hadn't heard about that one before, but it makes sense. 6 gets a little busy with curves and intersections right before it reaches the Perimeter, so twinning will help make it a bit safer. It would be nice to see the twinned portion stretch out about 10 km to Grosse Isle.

Funny that 59 to Grand Beach (or wherever) has been deferred to the somewhat distant future. For a while there in the 2000s it seemed like it was imminent from the way it was being discussed.

[Biff]

I would add to the Hwy 6 project there is also 4 km of passing and turning lanes included in this project.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

Don’t forget 6. That will affect how the interchange between 101 and 6 will be built.

HWY 6 at 101 is interesting as the staging seems to be in place to connect HWY 6 through to Sturgeon Access. Each intersection is setup as a four way intersection currently with effectively missing sides that would roughly match up. That extension would also align with and support the planned development of the Centreport area into a commercial truck lot global transportation hub.

[bomberjet]

We talk so much about stuff and nothing happens. 59n/101 was a miracle. Hoping for another miracle to come of the south perimeter. Any other grandiose plans I hold basically zero hope of anything happening soon.

[Dengler Avenue]

Honestly, Pallister's such an old fart...

[esquire]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

We talk so much about stuff and nothing happens. 59n/101 was a miracle. Hoping for another miracle to come of the south perimeter. Any other grandiose plans I hold basically zero hope of anything happening soon.

In terms of highway developments relevant to Winnipeggers, what has happened in the last 20 years? Basically the construction of CCW, 101/59 and the completion of TCH twinning to the Sask border. Pretty well everything else fits into the category of minor changes or routine maintenance. And the first half of that 20 year stretch were relatively good economic times. The second half was much tougher. And now it's probably going to get even worse for a while which does not bode well.

Honestly, at the rate things move around here, just getting one new interchange somewhere on the south Perimeter in the next 5 years would count as a win.