Completion date of Plessis underpass project extended

The federal government is giving the City of Winnipeg a break andmore time to complete the Plessis Road underpass.

The massiveproject is behind schedule.The city was required to have two lanes of Plessisbetween Dugald Road and Kernaghan Avenueopen to traffic by the end of this July. Instead the city asked to havethat deadline pushed back toOct.31, 2015.

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"I am pleased to inform our community that Minister [Denis]Lebel has officially approved the City of Winnipeg's request for timeline extensions for thePlessisRoad Underpass Project," Elmwood-TransconaCoun. LawrenceToet said in a statement.

"While I continue to share the frustration of local residents and businesses regarding the slow progress of this project, I am very thankful that our government is preserving federal funding that was previously committed to this important project, provided the City of Winnipeg adheres to its revised construction timeline."

Up to $25 millionin federal money was committed to the projectin 2012.

The underpass is expected to be complete in 2017 a year later than originally planned.