The day after public consultations, stakeholders are reflecting on how to improve safety at a southern Manitoba intersection with a tragic history.
On Tuesday evening, more than 100 Carberry residents attended the town’s community memorial centre to share their thoughts on how to upgrade the intersection at highways 1 and 5.
That’s the site where a mini-bus and semi-truck collided, killing 17 seniors on June 15, 2023.
Since then, Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure (MTI) has taken some interim safety measures.
“We’ve rehabilitated some of the rumble strips that were a little bit tired out there,” said Dustin Booy, executive director of highway engineering for MTI.
“We’ve reinforced the speed zone in the area…. We’ve also introduced important intersection signs with a flashing amber light over top, just to raise driver awareness.”
But Carberry Mayor Ray Muirhead said the community is looking forward to a permanent fix.
“The climate around the community is, ‘It’s about time,'” he said. “Unfortunately, it took this accident to make it happen, but it’s really got the town buzzing about wanting to get something done because it is a dangerous intersection. It always has been, and it will continue to be and unless something is done.”
The main solutions being discussed are roundabouts, an R-cut or potential median widening.
Muirhead said residents have asked about an overpass, which Booy said could be a consideration, though a costly one, adding that there are several other concerns residents have left his team to mull over.
“Things like mobility — how do people navigate the intersection? How do they get through? What are the primary movements that the department should consider? Another consideration is just the impact to adjacent lands,” Booy said.
In the end, he said all options will be screened and evaluated in search of the “one that makes the most sense.
“We’ll do that against a set of evaluation criteria that addresses the concerns and considerations of the public that we had heard from the meeting…. Cost, obviously, is a very big one. So we’d want to make sure that’s considered in whatever solution we select. There might also be other environmental concerns in the area that we’d want to address as well.”
Muirhead said he is hopeful everything will pan out.
“I think we’re going to see something. I think this new government, the NDP government, are committed,” he said.
“It’s very encouraging to myself, to council and to the members of the community that we’re finally seeing something, and I think this government is going to follow through with it.”
Booy says there are several major steps left before making permanent changes to the intersection. The next step is developing design alternatives, followed by identifying a preferred one.
It’s hoped that will be done this fall.
After that, it’s expected a report will be drawn up by spring 2025, with work starting later that year and finishing in the fall of 2026.
Muirhead said Carberry is having a memorial for the 17 victims of the crash last summer on Aug. 11.