The three highways and roads in rural Manitoba getting $17M in improvements

Trucks converge on the Perimeter Highway to raise money for Special Olympics Manitoba in 2012.

WINNIPEG — The Governments of Canada and Manitoba announced on Tuesday that they will be providing $17 million in joint funding to improve three provincial highways and roads in rural Manitoba.

“Rural and northern communities are an integral part of our country, and they have been impacted by COVID-19 in unprecedented ways,” said Terry Duguid, parliamentary secretary to the minister of economic development and official languages and to the minister of environment and climate change, in a news release.

“Thanks to a federal funding of over $8.5 million, the three highway projects we’re announcing today will create jobs, improve road safety, facilitate the transportation of goods and services, and build stronger, more connected communities.”

One of the projects the governments are investing in is a bituminous rehabilitation project south of Snow Lake, which will restore about 26 kilometres of PTH 39 from PR 392 eastward. The governments will each provide more than $3.9 million to this project.

The funding will also help to upgrade over 10 kilometres of PR 280 near Thompson. These improvements will help to meet current and future traffic volumes surrounding Gillam, Sundance and Split Lake. Both the federal government and the province will contribute more than $2.4 million to this road upgrade.

The third project that will be benefit from the funding is 24 kilometres of bituminous road restoration south of Duck Bay. This road will be restored through the addition of a thin lift overlay of bituminous pavement on PTH 20 between PR 271 and 272. Both levels of government will be investing more than $2 million into this restoration.

In total, the Governments of Canada and Manitoba will each be contributing more than $8.5 million under the rural and northern communities infrastructure stream of the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program.

“Restoring highway infrastructure is key to ensuring Manitobans have reliable and safe access to communities,” said Ron Schuler, Manitoba’s infrastructure minister.

“For rural and northern areas particularly, roadways are relied on heavily for access to goods, services and their neighbouring communities. This announcement continues to reinforce the Province of Manitoba’s commitment to investing in safe roadways and creating economic growth in our northern communities.”