Doin’ the construction crawl
Take a deep breath and join us as we take a four-hour slow-motion cruise through this summer's obstacle course of roadwork and... no work
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/08/2016 (2770 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
There’s an age-old adage that there are two seasons in Winnipeg: construction and winter.
This summer, however, the former seems to be creating more traffic havoc than usual. Pick a route… any route; driving from Point A to Point B seemingly anywhere in the city means running a gauntlet of lane closures, heavy machinery and barricades.
So on Thursday afternoon, we set out on a four-hour journey just to get a taste of a day on the road in Winnipeg, a journey through the asphalt jungle.
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It’s 2 p.m. when we leave the Free Press building on Mountain Avenue and head west on Inkster Boulevard, which has been the scene of major construction between Sheppard and Keewatin streets for several weeks. But there’s nothing but fresh pavement and free sailing this day. The work done.
We’re headed for the belly of the beast: Route 90, which has been the bane of many commuter’s existence this summer. Travelling southbound on Route 90, starting at Inkster, the coast is clear until Silver Avenue, where the traffic is backed up from Ness. Not so unusual, no matter what time of year. One of the holdups, however, is a barricade in the right lane just before the Ness intersection.
Just a barricade. No workers. No work. No sign of work. (Except the misleading sign indicating there are, in fact, men at work).
The same situation continues across Ness and under the Portage overpass: a barricaded right lane with no visible signs of construction. There are signs warning of doubled fines for speeding in excess of the reduced-by-construction 60 km/h limit. Traffic narrows to two lanes. There is a confirmed sighting of workers working on the bridge.
It takes about 30 minutes to get to Taylor Avenue from our Inkster Boulevard starting point, and it’s not rush-hour yet.
We make a U-turn and crawl north along Kenaston Boulevard at bumper-to-bumper speed because the curb lane is closed several blocks ahead near Carpathia Road, leaving a single lane for the growing traffic snake.
The situation along Ness isn’t much better. Four lanes have been shrunk to two (one each way), from Century Street west to Ferry Road. Left turns off Ness carry the risk of fines and demerits for the time being.
After that, it doesn’t seem to matter what direction we take, there’s at least some construction-related congestion. Keewatin is under repair from Notre Dame to Logan; Logan is closed eastbound off Keewatin. And so it goes.
Then there’s Maryland Street: we started out at 3:45, turning south off Notre Dame. It was down to a single lane near Ellice Avenue, where trucks were dumping fresh asphalt. More of the same further south past Portage Avenue, where three lanes have become two. And traffic is squeezed down to a single lane each way on Academy Road, on the other side of the Maryland Bridge.
As we hit Academy, at about 4 p.m., an ambulance with its siren blaring is approaching from the west… or at least trying to. Fortunately, traffic headed east on Academy is able to move into the curb lane, which is closed but paved, allowing the ambulance to pass.
Heading southbound on Stafford, traffic is backed up but moving at a steady pace. One of the reasons for the congestion is a barricade in the curb lane near Corydon Avenue. No workers, no work being done.
After all of that, Pembina Highway from Stafford to Bishop Grandin Highway feels like the Autobahn, even approaching the beginning of the rush hour at 4:30 p.m.
Next up is northbound St. Mary’s Road, which is relatively clear until the forked intersection at St. Anne’s Road. North of the split, median lanes are closed on either side of St. Mary’s. Northbound traffic is reduced to one lane, which undoubtedly offers morning commuters headed downtown lots of time for quiet reflection.
While there were pylons and barricades everywhere we went, there was no gridlock. None. Even though earlier in the week, reports of major traffic jams were commonplace.
“The traffic is the best it’s been for the last couple of days,” CBC Radio’s traffic reporter Trevor Dineen reported, as we were idling on St. Mary’s Road.
The last leg of the odyssey took us to Lagimodiere Boulevard, which was backed up going south from Marion Street all the way to Regent Avenue, a short stretch that swallowed a full 15 minutes.
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Maybe we just got lucky. Right places, right times. Despite lineups of a kilometre or more in some places, the longest delay was about 15 minutes.
Moral of the story: Winnipeg might be a city of potholes. It might have winter and construction seasons. But our traffic jams might be the mildest most cities endure.
randy.turner@freepress.mb.ca
Twitter: @randyturner15
Randy Turner
Reporter
Randy Turner spent much of his journalistic career on the road. A lot of roads. Dirt roads, snow-packed roads, U.S. interstates and foreign highways. In other words, he got a lot of kilometres on the odometer, if you know what we mean.