While work on raising Highway 75 northbound between St. Jean and Morris is set to begin this spring, the picture is not as clear when it comes to flood proofing the highway north of Morris.

The province is in the process of flood proofing the busy thoroughfare to withstand a 2009 size flood. Doing so would match Interstate Highway 29 on the North Dakota side and keep commercial traffic flowing through the international trade corridor.

Work already began last year with the construction of a new bridge on Highway 75 northbound at St. Jean, and work on raising the highway from the bridge to Morris will start this spring.

Flood proofing the highway north of Morris, however, becomes more complicated and more expensive because it would involve building a new bridge on the north end of Morris that is significantly higher and raising the roadway several feet from the bridge to PR 205, about a 16 kilometre stretch.

"The bridge is a complicated matter on its own, but if they're going to raise the highway north of town, the most complicated part will be ensuring there are enough control structures, bridges or culverts to allow water to flow freely so that we don't create an artificial dike out of the highway and cause artificial flooding in areas that have never flooded before," said Gavin van der Linde, mayor of Morris.

That's part of the reason why engineers with Manitoba Infrastructure are doing a cost benefit analysis on a second option, which would involve redirecting traffic through the east side of Morris along Highway 23 and then north along St. Mary's road just east of the Red River. That route, from Highway 23 to PR 205 is a gravel road and would need to be upgraded to accommodate heavy commercial truck traffic.

"That road remains out of the water for the most part in a 2009 level flood, so they would need to upgrade it so that it's not destroyed by the large volume of traffic, but they'd also need to raise it in parts," said van der Linde. "No decisions have been made and right now they are doing a cost benefit analysis to determine if a upgrade to St. Mary's Road would be less expensive compared to raising Highway 75 north of town."

If the province were to choose the St. Mary's Road option, improvements would still need to be made to Highway 75 north of Morris.

"That piece is in really bad condition right now and it hasn't been repaired yet because the province is waiting for a final decision on the upgrade. So that portion would still have to be fixed in addition to an upgrade of St. Mary's."

Van der Linde met with Infrastructure minister Blaine Pedersen earlier this month for an update on the Highway 75 reconstruction project and was pleased to hear the Pallister government remains committed to finishing the project.