St. James Street again crowned worst road in Manitoba

WINNIPEG – St. James Street’s moon-like landscape of holes and crumbling pavement has again earned the Winnipeg thoroughfare the title of worst road in Manitoba.

The street also topped the public online poll by CAA Manitoba in 2012 and took second spot in 2013.

“If you’ve driven on St. James Street in the past few months, you know why,” CAA Manitoba president and CEO Mike Mager said. “Nearly 900 votes were cast for this road alone, citing complaints like traffic congestion, traffic light synchronization, pedestrian safety and, of course, potholes.”

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The road is scheduled for reconstruction from Maroons Road to St. Matthew’s Avenue in 2014 and from St. Matthews to just north of Ellice Avenue in 2015.

The CAA survey, though, barely scratches the surface of Winnipeg’s crisis of crumbling roads. Each year the city publishes a list of conditions of all roads – and a startling number of them are listed in “poor” condition. The 2013 road conditions list can be found on the city’s website.

First Street in Winkler took second spot in the poll, Ness Avenue in Winnipeg was third, Pembina Highway in Winnipeg was fourth and Highway 10 was fifth. The full list and the lists from the two previous polls are below.

There were 5,069 votes cast for 528 Manitoba roads in the online poll, which began on March 25.

The information will be given to all levels of the government, CAA officials said.

Manitoba’s worst roads 2014:

1. St. James Street – Winnipeg – 883 votes
2. First Street – Winkler – 536 votes
3. Ness Avenue – Winnipeg – 356 votes
4. Pembina Highway – Winnipeg – 356 votes
5. Highway 10 – 309 votes
6. Highway 34 – 191 votes
7. Inkster Boulevard – 156 votes
8. Victoria Avenue – Brandon – 153 votes
9. Empress Street – Winnipeg – 108 votes
10. Berry Street – Winnipeg – 82 votes

Manitoba’s worst roads 2013:

1. Victoria Avenue – Brandon
2. St. James Street – Winnipeg
3. First Street – Winkler
4. Berry Street – Winnipeg
5. Ness Avenue – Winnipeg
6. Highway 10 – Boissevain
7. King Edward Street – Winnipeg
8. Inkster Boulevard – Winnipeg
9. Pembina Highway – Winnipeg
10. Frasers Grove – Winnipeg

RELATED: CAA Manitoba releases results of worst road survey (2013)

Manitoba’s worst roads 2012:

1. St. James Street – Winnipeg
2. Highway 21 – Various municipalities
3. Marion Street – Winnipeg
4. Highway 10 – Various municipalities
5. Molson Street – Winnipeg
6. Route 90 – Winnipeg
7. Trans-Canada Highway – Various municipalities
8. McGillvary Boulevard – Winnipeg
9. Loudoun Road – Winnipeg
10. Empress Street – Winnipeg