18th Street reconstruction kicks off

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This article was published 04/09/2024 (613 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s worst road is finally being rebuilt, Premier Wab Kinew announced in Brandon on Tuesday.

Starting Tuesday and wrapping up sometime in October, the province is spending $9.7 million on rebuilding 18th Street — part of Highway 10 — between Aberdeen and Rosser avenues. That stretch of road is around 2.9 kilometres long.

It was also announced that work upgrading Highway 110, including part of Richmond Avenue, is currently in the design phase and is expected to be completed next year.

“It’s not me throwing shade,” Kinew said in front of Brandon University, flanked by members of his cabinet, local dignitaries and representatives from contractor Zenith Paving.

“There was a whole survey around the province that said 18th Street needed the most work of any road or highway in the province, and so we were motivated by that as well as all the people from Brandon and the Westman (region) who have been reaching out to us,” he said.

“The pylons are up. Construction starts today.”

CAA Manitoba’s annual survey of the province’s worst roads had 18th Street at the top in 2024. Richmond Avenue was tied for 10th place with Winnipeg’s Inkster Boulevard.

Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Lisa Naylor promised in April that her government would move up the rebuilding of 18th Street to this year from the 2028-29 fiscal year as long as the City of Brandon finished repairing underground utilities beneath the road first. That work finished last month.

The premier said Manitobans deserve to have good roads to drive on to keep their vehicles in good shape and keep their family safe. The road wasn’t meeting that standard, he said, and the wait for it to get fixed in several years “wasn’t good enough.”

Beyond the safety aspects, Kinew also touted the reconstruction as important for the local economy, as it would help improve transportation and create local jobs.

Joining Kinew at the podium was Naylor, who said the timeline being moved up came after Brandon and her department worked together to patch roads after an early winter thaw and heavy spring rains that created large potholes.

“This partnership has helped ensure a safer roadway for residents, commercial vehicles and visitors to the area,” Naylor said. “We’re very grateful to Mayor (Jeff) Fawcett and the City of Brandon for their help and co-ordination of these efforts.”

Naylor said the 18th Street project is part of more than $100 million in infrastructure projects going on in Brandon right now that includes the finishing touches on the new Daly Overpass and the future work on Highway 110.

With construction starting on 18th Street, Naylor asked motorists to be patient as traffic will be soon restricted into one lane in each direction.

Fawcett told the assembled crowd that the expediting of the project really kicked off when Brandon held the Association of Manitoba Municipalities’ spring convention and “everybody in the province got to really see what our road was like.”

“They moved it ahead,” Fawcett said. “We’re really, really appreciative of that. They saw the urgency and they saw how we could work together to do that. Among all the other infrastructure projects that we are working with the province on, this is one of the most visible.”

Brandon Chamber of Commerce president Lois Ruston said she was “very pleased to see this important infrastructure investment made in our community.”

She said 18th Street is a vital artery connecting residents to education, health care and other services.

“It’s the corridor that regional traffic utilizes to move goods to our businesses in what is really the largest commercial area in southwestern Manitoba.”

While answering questions from reporters after the announcement, the premier said his government is still deciding on whether it will extend the holiday from the provincial gas tax. Currently, the holiday is scheduled to end on Sept. 30.

“We’re taking a look at extending that potentially to the end of the year based on a lot of different factors,” Kinew said.

“We know that inflation has come down in Manitoba, but does anybody feel like they’re getting ahead with the cost of living? Grocery prices are still high and they’re not going to come down. Rent and housing costs are still high and we know that the interest rates that people are facing, that’s a big reason why.”

The Bank of Canada is expected to announce an interest rate cut today, something Kinew said will factor into his decision.

The premier was also asked about CUPE Manitoba members in Shared Health, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and Southern Health-Santé Sud who recently rejected their most recent contract offer.

Last week, CUPE told the Sun that the Shared Health workers include 43 clinical engineering and diagnostic services workers in Westman.

“Our government has been hard at work to fix the staff in crisis,” Kinew said Tuesday. “We’ve been able to add many, many health-care aides to the system this year that’s going to make the workload a little bit more manageable.”

He touted the gas tax holiday as a measure his government has taken to make life more affordable for health-care aides.

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