City of Winnipeg officially launches record road construction season

The City of Winnipeg officially launched its largest road construction season ever at a news conference in Polo Park on Friday.

The event was held on Empress Street  — the roadway voted worst in the province in a Manitoba CAA online poll this spring.

This year’s budget includes a record $116 million investment for improvements to local and regional streets, back lanes and sidewalks.

By the time it’s all said and done, the city expects to have completed 150 lane kilometres of improvements.

“That’s the distance from around the Mint to the Ontario border,” Mayor Brian Bowman said.

About 50 per cent of the more than 200 projects are already underway, according to city officials.

Construction on Empress Street is scheduled to begin June 29 and is expected to take two years to complete.

“Anyone who drives on Empress knows it’s long overdue,” Bowman said.

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Other road projects starting soon, noted by Bowman, include:

• Pembina Highway, northbound from Ducharme to Cloutier;
• McPhillips Street northbound and southbound, from Logan to Jarvis;
• St. James Street, from Sargent to Ellice;
• McGregor Avenue, from Selkirk to Mountain;
• Fermor Avenue, from St. Anne’s Road to Archibald.

“It isn’t just about fixing our roads,” he said. “It’s also about investing in our future and in our economy,” Bowman said.

The complete listing and map of road repairs is shown on the City of Winnipeg website.

The city will also be using warm mix asphalt for the first time, which is said to provide advantages over hot mix asphalt, including reducing energy and extending paving season by up to three weeks since it can be poured in much cooler temperatures.

Warm mix asphalt is used in other North American cities and will be tested on some of Winnipeg’s roads this year.