Less than a week after a petition circulated to make changes to the area, the Province of Manitoba is implementing “further safety measures” on the south Perimeter Highway near Brady Landfill.
“These are significant changes meant to improve safety for drivers who need to access the Brady Road Landfill and those who drive through the area,” said Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler.
“We understand these changes may be disruptive to some drivers, but we are still seeing too many collisions and near-misses in the area and need to take further steps to make the area safer in the interim while we build toward a long-term solution.”
The province is currently updating the area to include a permanent service road to Brandy Landfill, and those permanent changes will be completed in 2020, the Minister said at the end of October. However, about 800 vehicles use the area to enter the landfill daily and therefore, it’s not possible to close the turnoff just yet, said Schuler.
In the meantime, the speed limit will be reduced to 80km/h between PR 330 and Kenaston Boulevard, and there will be no left turns off Brady Road westbound onto the Perimeter Highway, said Schuler.
The province will also put together a “deceleration zone” on the paved shoulder west of the Brady Road turnoff, and there will be message boards and speed reader boards near the turnoff.
The dirt service road in the area cannot handle heavy truck traffic and is not a safe replacement, Schuler said.
Nineteen-year-old Ethan Boyer was killed in that area after being rear-ended by a semi on Oct. 25. His vehicle was pushed into another truck and the car was compacted between the two vehicles.
His mother, Susan, vowed to advocate for changes to the intersection after her son’s death.
“My son was a great kid with a whole life ahead of him. (He) just stopped in traffic, waiting for traffic to proceed. How does a gravel truck not see that traffic has stopped? How does he not see the large semi in front of Ethan stopped?