Winkler's Mayor says speed reductions likely prevented fatal crashes at one of the most dangerous highway intersection in the province.

"Had I not lobbied for the City of Winkler to reduce that highway from 80 km/h to 60 km/h, how many of those accidents would've been fatalities? That is why I've been lobbying for the reduction of speed limits."

Recently released data from Manitoba Infrastructure revealed Winkler is home to the most volatile intersection in the province, outside Winnipeg's perimeter highway. In total, there have been 32 collisions in the past five years at the intersection of PTH 14 and 32, and PR 428 in the city's northeast corner.

The battle with MIT's now-defunct Traffic Board goes back nearly a decade to a request for a speed reduction on Highway 14. The two-year process, which started in 2008, included multiple onsite inspections with MIT and even a Winkler Police Service recommendation before the board agreed to drop the limit from 80 km/h to 60 km/h.

Looking back, Harder says that reduction which leads directly to the PTH 14/32 intersection helped turn some of the dozens of collisions from fatal, to survivable.

"Yes it's the worst intersection in terms of accidents, but it's not the worst intersection because of the number of fatalities... because of the work that we did to reduce the speed down from 80 km/h to 60 km/h," Harder says.

The intersection in Winkler northeast corner saw 32 collisions in the past five years

It was another two-year process to reduce the speed along PR 428 from 100 km/h to 50 km/h, though MIT maintained a recommendation of 60 km/h. The city eventually exercised its authority to establish a 50 km/h speed limit as the highway ran past a school zone.

When the city was turned down in 2017 after requesting speed reductions from 50 km/h to 30 km/h in a high-density development with a number of young families, Harder said of the Traffic Board, "this organization should, in fact, keep their nose out of the cities and towns wanting to reduce speed limits for the sake of safety."

After years of advocacy and the support of AMM, the provincial government announced new legislation allowing municipalities to set speed limits on their roadways rather than having to apply to a provincial board. Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler made the announcement at the Manitoba Legislature in March 2018, calling it some of the most significant changes to the transportation legislation in the past 30 years.

Meanwhile, the city, including two mayors, have been lobbying the province to four-lane PTH 32 for two decades. Harder notes Winkler has fulfilled every requirement on their end, but continually wait for the province to step up to the plate as the stretch of road is technically a Provincial Trunk Highway and therefore falls under their jurisdiction. Harder is hopeful the province's portion of the project will finally be greenlit in 2020.

Work to twin PTH 32 through Winkler continues

However, he notes the current scope of the twinning project wouldn't even reach the now infamous PTH 32/14 intersection.

"We've broken it down into smaller segments to get the ball moving, but obviously the ball has stopped again. However, this intersection isn't even on the piece currently engineered and designed and ready for construction... this is the next phase."

"That concerns me," Harder adds. "We want to work with the province... we led the charge, we've spent hundreds of hours on the design and development... we've put infrastructure money up front, we are honestly just beside ourselves, unsure of what else we can do."

Moving forward, he says concerned citizens must look to their provincial representatives to further the cause.

"When this is fixed lies entirely with the Province of Manitoba," Harder says.

Related Article: Preparation For PTH 32 Twinning Continues, Though Construction Unlikely In 2019

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