Open house date set for Carberry intersection

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This article was published 19/06/2025 (369 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The province is hosting another open house in Carberry to update the public on its plans for the redesign of the Highway 5 and Trans-Canada Highway intersection.

The meeting, set for next Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the gym at Carberry Collegiate, will also gather more public input and outline next steps, the Town of Carberry said in a Facebook post.

The intersection is being redesigned after a crash in June 2023, which killed 17 seniors who were passengers in a bus driving from Dauphin to the Sand Hills Casino south of Carberry.

Consultants Landmark Planning and Design and WSP Canada will present three different design options at the meeting.

The perceived front runner, according to community members, is the restricted crossing U-turn (RCUT) design, a widely used concept in the U.S. that directs drivers to turn onto a main road and make a U-turn at a one-way median.

Last month, people from Carberry and surrounding area held a rally to protest the RCUT.

Many people at the May 22 rally said farm equipment and semi-trucks would have a hard time navigating the U-turn, and that farm equipment is too slow to merge into traffic, switch lanes and slow back down. People also weren’t happy that traffic surveys were taken during the summer, which isn’t a busy time of year.

Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Lisa Naylor said in a interview with the Sun earlier this week that the RCUT intersection isn’t as dangerous as people seem to think.

She also said the time of year the study happened “wouldn’t make a difference” because modelling software is able to replicate what would happen at other times of the year.

“It’s not that busy of an intersection, and so there are many intersections along the Trans-Canada that have a lot more traffic, and we’ve modelled this to presume a much heavier traffic,” Naylor said.

While the RCUT model hasn’t been picked yet among the three finalists, she said it is safe for the type of traffic that would use it.

The layout is already used in other agriculture communities in Saskatchewan, she said, along with many more in the United States.

Other design options being considered are a split intersection and widening the median at the intersection.

An open house in March also presented those three options, although there was a focus on the RCUT at the meeting because, according to the consultant, it is “unfamiliar to Manitobans.”

Protesters at last month’s rally urged the government to scrap the three ideas completely and instead spend more money on an overpass, which the province ruled out because of the high price tag. People said a widened intersection would be the next best option.

Naylor said no final decision has been made on the design. The province is right on track for the project’s timeline, she added, although there isn’t a date set for construction to start.

Naylor also said she met with the local RM last week about the intersection, and that “I know that there’s been some concerns about one of the models that has been presented in the community.”

Carberry Mayor Ray Muirhead also believed the province was favouring the RCUT, he said in an interview last month.

Muirhead didn’t answer multiple requests for comment for this story. RM of North Cypress-Langford Reeve Ray Drayson, which is the municipality where the intersection is located, also didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Naylor said the province is going to take its time and weigh the feedback from engineers and community members, especially from the upcoming meeting.

Naylor also offered her sympathies to the families and community members affected by the deadly 2023 collision, as the two-year anniversary of the accident was on Sunday.

“We’ll continue speaking with the community before a final decision is made, and look forward to being able to, more than anything, make this the safest it can possibly be,” Naylor said.

“It’s important to remember why we are doing the project at this time, at this intersection, and to remember the lives that were lost there and the dramatic impact on the communities.”

Agassiz MLA Jodie Byram also sent her well wishes to the crash victims’ families.

“Our deepest sympathies remain with the 17 families, extended families and friends left to mourn their loved ones,” she wrote in an email to the Sun.

“I welcome the ongoing review of the intersection at Highway 5 and the Trans-Canada Highway being conducted by the Manitoba government. The safety of Manitobans should remain the top priority for any re-design of the intersection.”

Dauphin Mayor David Bosiak said the two-year anniversary means a lot to many people in the community. The hope is to find whatever solution for the intersection is best, to avoid having a crash like this ever happening again.

Sunday, he said, “was a very sad day for quite a few people in our community.”

Both Dauphin and Carberry have built memorials to commemorate the lives that were lost.

Landmark Planning and Design didn’t return calls for comment.

» alambert@brandonsun.com