Highway 10 ‘huge priority’ for province, Ashton says

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This article was published 03/09/2011 (5531 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Improvements along a stretch of Highway 10 North is just part of a multi-year project that will eventually see paved shoulders and passing lanes all the way to Minnedosa, Transportation Minister Steve Ashton says.

Ashton, in Brandon Friday on a pre-election jaunt with Brandon East NDP MLA Drew Caldwell, said the highway improvements will not only increase highway safety but answer the welcome pressures a growing regional economy has brought.

“We’re doing a lot more but we recognize that we have to do a lot more. It’s one of the nice dilemmas of growth,” Ashton told the Sun as the noise of heavy machinery whirred in the background. “If you look at pressures of growth in and around this area and the work we’ve done in this area, Highway 10 is a huge priority.”

The first leg of construction along Highway 10 North includes a 15-kilometre stretch from Brandon to the junction of Highway 25, but the battle against spring flooding delayed progress by about four months.

Construction crews are now looking for warm, dry weather over the next few weeks; a two-kilometre stretch south of Forrest is expected to be the first portion to boast both northbound and southbound passing lanes and a resurfaced and widened highway.

“We’ll have a few (projects) that won’t get done due to the flood and we’ll have some carry-over work next year,” Ashton said. “… The key for us, is we don’t just do one-off projects and we don’t just do large projects. We have a five-year plan and in this case, the plan ahead is to go all the way to Minnedosa with the work you see here. It’s not just a patch here and a patch there.”

A methodical approach to highway improvements, Caldwell says, is part of the NDP government’s long-term planning for continued growth and connectivity throughout rural Manitoba.

“This investment we’re making today is an investment in the future prosperity of Manitoba in a very fundamental way,” Caldwell said. “Our five-year plan and budgeting will continue throughout the mandate of our government. We believe in business plans and a mandate that will get the job done.”

The stretch of Highway 10 north between Brandon to Riding Mountain National Park has become notorious for fatal collisions. A total of seven people have died in collisions on Highway 10 south of Riding Mountain National Park since 2008, according to RCMP records provided to the Sun.

The latest tragedy involved two Brandon teens, who were killed in late June after the vehicle they were in collided head-on with another vehicle on Highway 10 just south of Erickson.

It was back in 2007 that the NDP government first pledged $60.9 million to improve Highway 10 both north and south of Brandon.

Repeated calls over the years from both the public and political realm to address the stretch of road that heads north from Brandon up to the area’s popular cottage country have been renewed following the June collision, with municipal officials in both Minnedosa and Erickson suggesting that twinning the highway in and around their communities is long overdue.

The inclusion of passing lanes and wider shoulders is a preventative step in the right direction, Ashton says.

“These passing lanes will make a difference in safety,” Ashton said. “You can’t make the fixes overnight. It has been a decade plus that we’ve been in government and the roads are in much better shape than they were last year. Ten years from now if we continue this kind of investment, they will be in much better shape again.”