Province releases first five-year infrastructure strategy

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/03/2023 (966 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Travelling in Westman may become a little less bumpy as 140 projects in the area are part of a $4.1-billion, five-year infrastructure strategy announced by the province Monday.

Within southwest Manitoba, Prairie View Municipality has the highest number of projects on the list at 12, most of them resurfacing and patching of provincial roads and highways.

While noting the announcement seemed to target the province’s paved roads but gravel ones need attention too, Reeve Roger Wilson said he was nevertheless happy to hear about the work being done in his area.

“That’ll be good news too, though, because we do rely on provincial roads in every municipality,” Wilson told the Sun shortly after the announcement, adding the more money invested in road maintenance, the better. “It’s more expensive all the time to resurface, rebuild.”

Wilson said a number of roads in his area were built in the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s, for one-tonne or two-tonne trucks. Now, he said, they’re supporting much heavier semis and B-trains and, when conditions are wet, those roads take a beating.

Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Doyle Piwniuk announced the strategy at a press conference in Winnipeg, stating it was the first time in the province’s history that it has a five-year infrastructure plan.

In a press release, the province said there are more than 800 approved provincial highway, water control and northern airport projects as part of the initiative, and interchanges and overpasses will be added to all roadways and railway crossings.

For more information, the minister referred citizens to his department’s online map of projects.

However, details included on the map are scant, and it’s not clear how many of the projects listed there, are new, as Brandon’s Daly Overpass replacement appears there and work on that $90-million project has been underway since February 2022.

Other Brandon projects that are part of the strategy include surface repairs to the airport access road off of Highway 10 and on service roads along the Trans-Canada Highway.

Traffic safety improvements at the intersection of Victoria Avenue and 26th Street, and at First Street and Richmond Avenue appear on the map, too. However, as in the case of the Daly Overpass being on the list but already underway, it’s not clear if the note regarding work at Victoria Avenue and 26th Street refers to changes there that were recently completed or additional improvements.

One major Westman project of note is a $115-million upgrade to Provincial Trunk Highway 5 between PTH 23 and the Trans-Canada Highway to support economic growth in the region and remove spring loading restrictions.

Area residents have complained about conditions along Highway 5, which leads to the Sand Hills Casino, for years. Last October, Holland-area grain companies complained that the highway was restricted to 90 per cent capacity.

There are also 214 water-related projects as part of the strategy.

» ihitchen@brandonsun.com