Hilltop location made roundabout best option: city

Several dozen residents got a first-hand look Tuesday at what the new roundabout planned for the intersection of 18th Street North and Braecrest Drive in Brandon will look like.

An open house at Brandon’s Community Sportsplex, featuring 10 mounted placards with information about the project, described how a roundabout is the best option for the busy intersection.

Kyle Winters, the city’s engineering director, said a roundabout was determined to “provide the most safety to people travelling through the intersection.”

While traffic lights were considered as an option, they were ruled out because of the location on top of a hill.

“Traffic signals were looked at (but) they were kind of removed from the equation just because they include a lot of queuing. So a lot of traffic builds up,” Winters told the Sun during the open house.

“Whereas a roundabout, there’s not as much (traffic). You’re not waiting. You’re just letting one car pass, and then you’re proceeding through the roundabout. So, better option in that regard.”

Since 18th Street North is a provincial road and snow clearing and ice mitigation are the province’s responsibility, Winters deferred comment on those matters to Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure.

An MTI official at the open house refused an interview request, as did an official with engineering and consulting company WSP, which designed the roundabout.

The roundabout will include a mountable truck apron so semi-trucks can get through and will also have marked pedestrian crossings on the north, east and west sides.

Along with construction of the roundabout itself, crews will also replace underground sewer and water infrastructure. That work was previously cited as the reason construction of the project will start next year.

The Sun was told last year that construction would be completed this fall. Most work is now expected to be completed by the end of 2027.

No road closures are expected during construction.

Winters said as more growth occurs on the North Hill, a second southbound lane could be added, “but that’s a number of years away.”

Spruce Woods MLA Colleen Robbins, whose riding includes the intersection, questioned building a roundabout instead of installing traffic lights, which could be a cheaper alternative. She also questioned how semi-trucks would perform at the intersection, as it is at the top of a hill, and what that would mean for other drivers.

However, she said the roundabout at the intersection of Highway 2 and Highway 3 south of Oak Bluff “works perfectly” with a lot of traffic, and she presumes that the engineers “know what they’re doing” in this case.

“Roundabout seems to be a way of going, and sometimes it’s change, and people have to get used to change. And once it’s there, it’s fine,” Robbins said at the event.

Coun. Ron Shaluk, whose Ward 1 includes the North Hill, said the design is what people in the area were expecting. Once it’s completed, he said, “there will be a lot of relief” for drivers who use the intersection.

“The existing setup clearly is not safe and a solution was overdue, for sure,” said Shaluk, who was elected as the new councillor last week.

Brandon West MLA Wayne Balcaen, who also attended the open house, said he is “very happy” the city took the lead on the project.

As there have been dozens of crashes at the intersection and at least two fatalities over the last 20 years, improving the intersection is “very important,” he said.

“Now it’s time to get the shovels in the ground and move this forward,” Balcaen said.

The estimated cost of the project is about $6 million, to be split with the city and province each paying for half.

» alambert@brandonsun.com