Public works chair says private sector should help pay to reopen Portage and Main
City to consider allowing taxis in diamond lanes; limited street cleaning to take place this fall
City council's public works chair says it may take both private and public money to reopen Portage and Main to pedestrians, one of Mayor Brian Bowman's priorities.
South Winnipeg-St. Norbert Coun. Janice Lukes said she hopes property owners around Portage and Main will reopen the city's famous intersection, which has been closed to pedestrian traffic since 1979.
Bowman made the reopening a campaign pledge when he ran for mayor in 2014 and said this June he hopes to make it happen in time for the Canada Summer Games and Canada's 150th birthday in 2017.
A traffic study that could pave the way for a reopening has been completed and is now in the hands of senior city officials.
Lukes said she has not seen the study and is unaware how much it would cost to reopen the intersection. She said she expects that figure will be part of the deliberations for 2017 budget, which will be presented to the public on Nov. 22.
Lukes said regardless of the cost, she expects Portage and Main property owners to contribute.
"Ideally, the folks on the corner will kick in it all, and the city wouldn't have to do anything," she said, apparently in jest. "We're hearing the mayor really wants this for Canada 150. I think we can do anything we want in a city, if we have the funding to support it."
Lukes also said she expects Winnipeg Transit to bear some additional costs as a result of the reopening. Portage and Main is heavily used by transit.
"I don't know how they're going to keep their schedule unless they add more buses, so there's a lot of factors in play here. It's not just pulling down pieces of concrete and putting up a few lights," she said.
Transit cool to taxis in diamond lanes
Winnipeg will consider the idea of allowing taxis to use rush-hour diamond lanes even though transit officials are cool to the idea.
City council's public works committee voted Tuesday to direct public works to look into Mynarski Coun. Ross Eadie's idea of allowing taxis and Handi-Transit buses to use diamond lanes.
This took place after Winnipeg Transit director Dave Wardrop told the committee diamond lanes are intended for use by high-occupancy vehicles, not taxis, said committee chair Janice Lukes (South Winnipeg-St. Norbert).
She said she's more amenable to the idea of allowing Handi-Transit vehicles to access diamond lanes, which are used only by buses and cyclists right now.
Limited street cleanup this fall
The City of Winnipeg plans to spend $95,000 this fall to conduct limited street cleaning using money left over from the spring street-cleaning program.
Council's public works committee voted Tuesday to use surplus funds from the 2016 spring program to remove leaves from some streets this fall.
The cash will be used "to address any safety-related concerns to the areas most impacted by extensive foliage," a report authored by public works officials says.
That includes school-zone dropoffs, pedestrian crossings, intersections and other places where decomposing leaves create slippery trouble spots.