Public weighs in on Daly Overpass

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This article was published 29/10/2019 (2266 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The province revealed the preferred design for the Daly Overpass rebuild on Monday evening, which most people say should help solve issues of bottlenecking and traffic on the more than 50-year-old bridge.

The preferred design was first made public by Landmark Planning and Design in June, but the province formally unveiled it at an information session at Victoria Inn on Monday evening.

The current bridge has two lanes of traffic heading south but only one going north, despite 18th Street having two lanes in both directions on either end of the bridge. Alex Campbell, a resident who attended the information session, said that is what causes the bottleneck for drivers heading into the northern section of the city. The redesign sets out two lanes heading north and two going south, so drivers never have to merge into a single lane.

“The problem is you’ve got four lanes going into three lanes, going into four lanes,” Campbell said. “Without a doubt, it’ll help.”

Carl Dennison, another resident who attended the information session, said the current bridge is badly in need of a replacement.

“It’s a disaster now. The traffic on Friday at 4 p.m. — it gets so busy you can’t move,” he said.

The province’s preferred optionshows a redesign of the intersection of 18th Street and Pacific Avenue.

The proposed new bridge itself bends to the east as it crosses over the Canadian Pacific Railway tracks north of Pacific Avenue. According to the design document, this is to ensure the existing bridge can still be used during construction.

The design also shows an active transportation bridge for walking and cycling running directly parallel on the east side of the bridge. The active transportation bridge starts at Rosser Avenue and ends on Stickney Avenue.

The total cost of the project is $65 million, with $45.8 million coming from the province and $19.1 million from the federal government.

Resident Rainer Rossing said he also believes the redesign will be a big improvement but added he found it difficult to understand the high price tag.

Resident Mel Lone said he appreciates that the preferred option minimizes the disruption to the surrounding area but still improves the overall traffic flow at the downtown intersection.

“It’s kind of what I thought it might be like and it looks like it’s going to be a good fit, at least from my perspective anyway,” Lone said.

To accommodate the new Daly Overpass the province will expropriate and demolish several businesses near the intersection. Both the Kullberg’s warehouse at the corner of Pacific Avenue and 18th Street and the Pacific Plaza on Pacific Avenue will have to come down in the province’s preferred option. The two buildings were affected by all four initial options presented in the multimillion-dollar bridge rebuild.

According to documents from Landmark Planning and Design outlining plans for the project, the option presented on Monday evening affects the fewest number of businesses and means the province has to expropriate fewer properties. Other options would have meant expropriating more houses on the north side of the bridge as well as Advance Auto Body & Glass.

In June, business owners said they were still waiting to have concrete discussions with the province over selling.

Construction is currently scheduled to start in spring 2021. The current bridge will stay open to traffic while the new overpass is built.

City of Brandon traffic and transportation planner Samuel van Huizen said it will depend on scheduling how much construction affects traffic, something the city will be consulted on. There could be some intermittent lane closures at Rosser Avenue, but they shouldn’t be for very long.

“We’ve been in ongoing conversation with Manitoba Infrastructure and their consultants throughout this entire thing,” he said. “A lot of what we’ve seen here tonight has been the collaboration of both (Manitoba Infrastructure) and the city. At this point we’re just happy to see the project come toward an end.”

The city is also in the process of extending Pacific Avenue from 18th Street to 26th Street. Van Huizen said that work will be done in concert with the bridge rebuild.

Construction on the bridge is anticipated to take around two years.

» dmay@brandonsun.com

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