Chief Peguis Trail inner ring road inches closer to completion

The completion ofWinnipeg'sinner ring road is continuing to inch closer, as theplan toextendChief Peguis Trail across the city'snorthwest quadrant now calls for overpassesat both Main Street and McPhillips Street.

Late last week, the City of Winnipeg launched a search for a consulting firm to design a nine-kilometreroadthat will extend Chief Peguis Trail from its current terminus at Main Street west to Brookside Boulevard.

Right now, Chief Peguis runs five kilometres eastfrom Main Streetto Lagimodiere Boulevard. The westernextension is intended to be another link in an inner ring road originally envisioned as a freewayin the 1950s.

"It's apartof strategic road network in the TransportationMaster Plan, which eventually will connect all throughout the inner ringroad system," said Scott Suderman, a transportation planning engineer with the city.

"Theotherimportant part ofthisroadway is that it willtakea lot oftrafficoff neighbourhood streets and put them on a higher-classified roadway, makingexistingneighbourhoods and new neighbourhoods moreaccessiblefor walking,cyclingand transit."

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Right now, short-cutting through residential streets is a problemin newnorthwest-Winnipeg neighbourhoods such as Mandalay West andAmber Trails.

"These particular streets were never designed for the traffic loads they see today," said OldKildonanCoun.DeviSharma, whose ward encompasses most of the proposed extension.

The request for design proposals issued last week calls for Chief Peguis Trail to be connected to north-south arteries such as McGregorStreet, Keewatin Street and Pipeline Road through a series ofrealignments and extensions of connecting roads.

It also stipulates theremust be overpasses at both Main Street and McPhillips Street. Conceptualart presented in June at a public meeting called for agrade separation at Main but only a regular set oftraffic lightsatMcPhillips.

Instead, the city is demanding the construction of some form ofdiamond interchange atMcPhillips "on day one"as well asa smaller structure known as a "single-point diamond" at Main, where the available land is restricted by thepresence of theKildonanGolf Course and the North End Water Pollution Control Centre.

Suderman said the design contract should be awarded this fall. The study will then take about a year to complete, he said.

At that point, council will have a cost estimate to consider before it decides to fund the project. City council public works chairwoman Janice Lukes (South Winnipeg-St. Norbert) said the extension of Chief Peguis Trail warrants serious consideration because it will facilitate the flow of goods to and from CentrePort, the industrial development northwest of the city.

"In my opinion, I think we shouldprioritizeroutes that have a notable economic spinoff," saidLukes, adding that the new roadway will facilitate the construction of single-family homes on former agricultural lands in fast-growing northwest Winnipeg."We also have to be looking at thegreenfieldswe'll be opening up."

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The earliest council could fund the western extension of Chief Peguis Trail is 2018. Suderman said before the completion of the design study, he could not predict when construction could commence or hazard a guess at the project cost.