Town of Morris Mayor Gavin van der Linde said Manitoba Infrastructure has made a decision regarding flood proofing north of Morris.

The options were to either raise the bridge and 75 Highway to 2009 flood standards or to pave PR 246 up to Aubigny and have that become the new flood route.

"The plan that they're working on now is not to go north on Highway 75 and replace that bridge, but they are going to go east around town... all the way up to Aubigny and then back onto Highway 75," said van der Linde.

"The reason they decided to go that route is, when they were doing the analysis of the two different routes, Highway 75 became reasonably complicated," he said.

Preliminary estimates were that it would cost one hundred million dollars more to go north, rather than east on PR 246.

He noted starting this project is still 3 years into the future.

"Things can still change, but currently the plan is to be looking at going up the 246 around Morris up to Aubigny."

Even though Manitoba Infrastructure has decided to go with the eastern option, van der Linde said Highway 75 north of Morris will still see improvements.

"They will still do a full rehabilitation of Highway 75. As far as repaving it similar to what they've done on the rest of the 75, that will all be done, it just won't be flood-proofed."

Van der Linde explained that the Hwy 75 option was simply too expensive.

"There were lots of complications with that because of the bridge on the north side of Morris, that was going to be extremely expensive to replace because that would have to go probably in the region of 16 feet higher than what it currently is to get it up to provincial standards," he said.

"Further north along Highway 75 they would have to add a lot of water control structures, so there would be 2 more bridges plus culverts to allow the water flow."  

The estimated cost for those bridges would have been in the region of 120 million dollars, said, van der Linde.

The cost to bring the section north of Morris up to flood standards was in the 200 million dollar range, and paving the PR 246 is in the 100 million dollar range.

"Ideally it would go through town because that's the main Mid-Continent Trade Corridor... but going up the 246 is a good plan and it will work for us," he said.

Related article: Province Considering Alternatives To Raising Highway 75 North Of Morris