The Manitoba government says it’s ready to twin its portion of the Trans-Canada Highway from Falcon Lake to the Ontario border.
Manitoba premier Heather Stefanson made the announcement Friday morning.
“We need to have this connectivity to get get our goods to market,” Stefanson told a crowd of news reporters and politicians in Falcon Lake.
“This is the Trans-Canada Highway that needs to be twinned and it should have been done a long time ago, and it hasn’t been, but now is the time to get it done.”
Manitoba Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Doyle Piwniuk adds the actual construction work won’t take place for at least four years.
“We’re looking at right now estimates. When I told that it could be as much as over $500 million, so its over a half a billion dollars, and we don’t know exactly. That’s why we doing the study. That’s why we have to do the conceptual design. That will give us a better understanding what the true cost is.”
In the meantime, he says a 700 meter stretch of the Trans-Canada in Manitoba where the Trans-Canada Highway meets the Ontario twinning project, is going ahead right away.
Calls to twin the highway increased after a fatal crash in 2019 killed father and son, Mark and Jacob Lugli, who were driving from Dryden to a golf tournament in Selkirk.
