Manitoba | Highways - Page 30

Dengler Avenue · #**581** Posted **Nov 25, 2020, 8:39 PM**

*Phew* I just sent the email to the Highway Planning & Design Department. (I didn't know that reaching M.I.T. wouldn't be as straightforward as with MTO.

)

Quote:

To Whom It Might Concern:

As someone who has driven between Winnipeg and Ottawa and who is passionate to see TCH twinned across the country to facilitate the movement of goods, I have made a map of the twinning proposal, which includes the section of TCH between Falcon Lake and the provincial boundary.

Please find attached a screenshot of the part of the map around Falcon Lake.

The link to the map is here:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=11qPd7-lLyG1jFj9N6y9ioaWMABkC1Mj0&usp=sharing

Since I am not an engineer by trade, I have only come up with this proposal by examining the surroundings as shown in the Google Street View. I hope that it will help with the functional design, nevertheless. If you have any questions, please let me know!

Sincerely,
(My name)

Ps: As you all can see, I am trying really hard to avoid modifying that interchange with PR 301. I'm also surprised by the lack of redundant routes (please don't say PTH 44

) from there to Prawda.

rrskylar · #**582** Posted **Dec 2, 2020, 8:27 PM**

Looks like work has begun on the new floodway bridges on 59 north of the city!

esquire · #**583** Posted **Dec 2, 2020, 8:31 PM**

^ Good news!

bomberjet · #**584** Posted **Dec 2, 2020, 8:50 PM**

Great news!

rrskylar · #**585** Posted **Dec 21, 2020, 4:59 PM**

Crew working on piling for new floodway bridge as late as 6:00 PM this past Sat. night!

bomberjet · #**586** Posted **Dec 21, 2020, 8:41 PM**

They gotta beat the spring flood. Good to see things are moving.

Bid results are here. MD Steele low bid at $40 mil. Flatiron came it at $81 mil haha. A little off the mark.

plrh · #**587** Posted **Dec 21, 2020, 9:01 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by bomberjet

They gotta beat the spring flood. Good to see things are moving.

Bid results are here. MD Steele low bid at $40 mil. Flatiron came it at $81 mil haha. A little off the mark.

There is a tremendous amount of contractor risk in bridge jobs. They probably learned a hard lesson from 59 and 101. Better to not win a bid than to lose money on a job. Contractors lose money on a surprising number of civil jobs. Maybe MD was off the mark.

bomberjet · #**588** Posted **Dec 21, 2020, 9:21 PM**

Ya I get it. There were 5 bids between 40 and 55 mil. Then 81 mil.

I went through a bunch of the closed postings today. They all have ups and downs in their prices on all the jobs. If you can't make that project work for whatever reason, then you can't.

Dengler Avenue · #**589** Posted **Jan 3, 2021, 7:40 PM**

I'm curious. If the WFH trend continues, or if people only need to come to the office (at most) 5 times in 2 weeks, is it possible for Kenora to become part of the commuter shed of Winnipeg?

plrh · #**590** Posted **Jan 4, 2021, 4:43 AM**

They have an internet availability problem in parts of that region that might limit the amount of work that can be done there. It is a problem in our office. There is at least one person beta testing that Elon Musk satellite internet thingy from our office. I don't know how well it is going.

1ajs · #**591** Posted **Jan 4, 2021, 7:15 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by plrh

They have an internet availability problem in parts of that region that might limit the amount of work that can be done there. It is a problem in our office. There is at least one person beta testing that Elon Musk satellite internet thingy from our office. I don't know how well it is going.

if ur offices are downtown you should talk to les.net they have a fiber network servicing most of downtown and might be able to solve that issue and have options avail aroind the city on wirles with gigabit speeds

1ajs · #**592** Posted **Jan 4, 2021, 7:27 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by bomberjet

Ya I get it. There were 5 bids between 40 and 55 mil. Then 81 mil.

I went through a bunch of the closed postings today. They all have ups and downs in their prices on all the jobs. If you can't make that project work for whatever reason, then you can't.

theres been allot of low ball bids that wind up burning the province last while...
caugh rutan mine remidation is on contracter numer 4 now? shrugs

the 391 had a tender go out for a new culvert between lynn lake and leaf rapids to replace a culvert thats gone bad ontop of the normal culvert repairs they are doing seprate. bids were 1.5 to 5million to replace it province said screw it aparently

esquire · #**593** Posted **Jan 4, 2021, 3:19 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

I'm curious. If the WFH trend continues, or if people only need to come to the office (at most) 5 times in 2 weeks, is it possible for Kenora to become part of the commuter shed of Winnipeg?

I doubt it. It's still kind of a long and occasionally treacherous wintertime drive for anyone who needs to be in Winnipeg on any kind of regular basis (i.e., more than a few times a month). I can see it being a niche for a small number of people who work mainly in a virtual space... my neighbour has a business working on a big blockchain project and he's been out at his cottage near Kenora for long stretches of time. He's pretty close to town so he must be within KMTS range for internet service. So those types of people might be able to make it work.

But someone who is a salaried employee or who has clients to meet probably wouldn't have that level of flexibility.

drew · #**594** Posted **Jan 4, 2021, 3:37 PM**

If they twin the highway and bump up the speeds to 110 in MB and 100 in Ontario - it will make the drive and commutability much more attractive than it currently is.

It would shave about 15 minutes or more off of the commute each way.

bomberjet · #**595** Posted **Jan 4, 2021, 4:50 PM**

Kenora is a 2 hr drive to Winnipeg. Basically Brandon but in the east. Probably a bit of a stretch. Portage La Prairie is about 45 minute drive and is plenty far in my books haha.

Context. People who live in Winnipeg and drive crosstown everyday spend 45 mins each way in the car.

drew · #**596** Posted **Jan 4, 2021, 4:56 PM**

It's far for sure - but the difference is people opting to spend more time at their cottage is more attractive than say living in Brandon and working in Winnipeg.

bomberjet · #**597** Posted **Jan 4, 2021, 4:57 PM**

If I was working from my cottage or something, I still wouldn't want to be driving in to the City a couple times a week. It sure would be nice to have that option though. Sitting on the dock while working.

CoryB · #**598** Posted **Jan 4, 2021, 5:55 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire

I doubt it. It's still kind of a long and occasionally treacherous wintertime drive for anyone who needs to be in Winnipeg on any kind of regular basis (i.e., more than a few times a month). I can see it being a niche for a small number of people who work mainly in a virtual space

Quote:

Originally Posted by bomberjet

Kenora is a 2 hr drive to Winnipeg. Basically Brandon but in the east. Probably a bit of a stretch. Portage La Prairie is about 45 minute drive and is plenty far in my books haha.

Context. People who live in Winnipeg and drive crosstown everyday spend 45 mins each way in the car.

Quote:

Originally Posted by drew

It's far for sure - but the difference is people opting to spend more time at their cottage is more attractive than say living in Brandon and working in Winnipeg.

For perspective, I knew someone that worked in downtown Winnipeg and choose to move to Portage La Prairie and commute back and forth daily before the pandemic. I knew someone else that commuted from northwest Winnipeg to Gimli daily and have heard stories of people doing Gimli to Winnipeg on a daily basis.

Considering the cost of things like property taxes in Winnipeg v "cottage country" if you could cut down the "to Winnipeg" trips to say once every 14 days I think a lot more people will be looking serious at that type of choices, provided they can access the type of internet needed to work from home.

Even then I have know of one person that lives in a smaller community, not sure where, and cannot get the needed internet access at their home so they rent an office (like a co-work space) in the back of a business in a nearby town. Just tossing numbers out there but say you could live on the lake year round, didn't need to maintain two properties and were say $3000 to the good including renting an office on just property taxes even before dropping the other second property expenses it really starts to be attractive.

Dengler Avenue · #**599** Posted **Jan 5, 2021, 2:45 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by drew

If they twin the highway and bump up the speeds to 110 in MB and 100 in Ontario - it will make the drive and commutability much more attractive than it currently is.

It would shave about 15 minutes or more off of the commute each way.

Oh yea this is actually why I asked (though, lol, yes, even I know it's a long way from now). I was wondering if having a divided highway between Falcon and Kenora might make that option attractive.

Anyway, the responses from y'all so far look pretty interesting. I like the variety thereof.

Ps: I also found it flattering when Kenora is listed as control city on the southern leg of Perimeter Highway.

In Ontario, heading west, it probably won't even be listed as such until west of Thunder Bay, both of which are in Northwestern Ontario...

Spocket · #**600** Posted **Jan 5, 2021, 5:55 AM**

For me the question is "why?" I just can't see any sort of advantage to commuting all the way from Kenora to Winnipeg on a semi-regular basis. Obviously there will be some who choose to do so for whatever reason but hardly enough to put Kenora in Winnipeg's commutershed.