Province kicks in $700K for design study of Kenaston Boulevard expansion in Winnipeg

The next step ofWinnipeg's proposed widening of Kenaston Boulevard is getting a $700,000 contribution from the Manitoba government.

The money covers 50 per cent of the City of Winnipeg's costs for the project's next phase, which includes conducting a design study, Premier Heather Stefanson said Thursday morning at an announcementnear the corner of Kenaston and Willow Avenue.

The city intends to widen Kenaston, between Taylor and Ness avenues, to three lanes in each direction.

The plans also call for rehabilitating and reconfiguring both spans of the St. James Bridge, rebuilding the road to accommodate a consistent speed limit of 60 km/hand adding active transportation infrastructure.

The city, which hasbeen working on plans to widen Kenaston for more than a decade,released updated plans about a month ago, along with a public survey to gather feedback.

The project's fullcost is estimated at $550 million.

It includes more than six kilometres of separated active transportation paths, a dedicated bike lane and pedestrian crossing over the river, and upgrades to transit stops so Winnipeg Transit "can run larger, more frequent buses along this route," Mayor Scott Gillingham said.

The project isalso essential to the success of Naawi-Oodena,the redevelopment of the former Kapyong Barracks military site, he said.

"Naawi-Oodenawill add thousands of housing units and a million square feet of commercial space. Clearly, that will impact traffic in this area," Gillingham said.

"City transportation engineers estimate that travel times will be up to 75 per cent longer over the next two decades if nothing is done to increase capacity [along Kenaston]."

Stefanson said major infrastructure corridors like Route 90, which Kenaston is part of,create quick access to business areas, which then enables products to get to market andfuel Manitoba'seconomic growth.