Construction season officially launched steps away from city’s worst road

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This article was published 21/06/2018 (2133 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

City hall kicked off its official road construction season Friday, highlighting the record $116-million program.

The city has planned more than 200 road-construction projects this year, a combined 150-lane kilometres of improvements.

The city has issued contracts on all the projects and work has begun on about 50 per cent of them, said Brad Neirinck, manager of engineering for the public works department, adding that’s a faster pace than previous years.

While the road-construction program was a highlight of the 2018 budget announcement back in November, Mayor Brian Bowman and finance chairman Scott Gillingham used a news conference at the Blue Cross offices on Empress Street Friday morning to highlight some of the road work.

“Fixing our roads continues to be the number one priority of Winnipeggers,” Bowman said. “Under this council, we’ve more than doubled the amount invested in road renewal than that of the previous council.”

The location for the event was not accidental: Empress Street has been identified as the city’s worst road this year by the Manitoba branch of CAA and city hall is about to embark on a two-year, $18-million rehabilitation and reconstruction project on the roadway between Portage Avenue and St. Matthews Avenue, including a dedicated cycling and pedestrian pathway that will link River Heights to the West End.

“I think the folks that are working in the (Blue Cross) offices will appreciate that when a bus goes by, their desks won’t rattle anymore once this work is completed,” Gillingham (St. James-Brooklands-Weston) said.

Bowman identified some projects that will be carried out this year, including:

• Pembina Highway, northbound from Ducharme to Cloutier
• McPhillips Street north and southbound, between Logan and Jarvis
• St. James Street, from Sargent to Ellice
• McGregor Avenue, from Selkirk to Mountain
• Roblin Boulevard eastbound lanes, between Assiniboine Park Drive and Shaftesbury Boulevard
• Fermor Avenue, from St. Anne’s Road to Archibald

The city also announced that it’s initiating a trial program using a warm mix asphalt compound that’s projected to be easier to use in colder weather and could extend the paving season by three weeks.

Neirinck said the warm mix asphalt will be used in the city’s thin bituminous overlay on 44 streets later in the season when the daytime temperature falls below freezing.

“It’s better for placing when it’s below minus five. It’s got additives that make it easier to place in cold weather,” said Neirinck, adding the hot mix asphalt the city uses gets cold faster and becomes difficult to use in lower temperatures.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca