RM of Ste Anne wants a roundabout on Highway 12

The RM of Ste Anne disagrees with the province’s recommendation that Highway 12 be closed to left turns from Provincial Road 210 onto Highway 12. They would rather see a roundabout.

Reeve Richard Pelletier and council discussed their meeting with Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure (MTI) during a Feb. 6 public open house in Ste Anne.

Pelletier said at council’s Feb. 12 meeting that he wanted to make sure the province knew of future commercial and industrial development plans in the RM along Highway 12.

“We shared to the group that we are recommending to go with the roundabout, for the traffic in and out, shipping and receiving. And if we are industrial in this corner, it’s something that we want to provide a better service for the business who’s coming around this corner,” said Pelletier.

“They didn’t view that in their decision making,” he added.

The land near the lagoon would not be residential but already has traffic along the service road.

“There’s also a lot of lagoon traffic so the easier we can make it for those folks, the better,” said Coun. Randy Eros.

He added that more people who work on the design were there compared to the presentation they received at council a week earlier, which was important from council’s perspective when they give information on future development.

“So I think there was more listening than some might think. It would be interesting to see what they come back with,” said Eros.

One thing the provincial staff made pretty clear will not be coming back is a decision to install lights so close to an overpass and on a major highway without any urban development directly on it. The department’s report said that would only make the intersection more dangerous.

“And it was very clear the people who were vocal like the idea of lights, and the Province has told us fairly early in this process they don’t see lights as doing what we want it to do, which is reduce serious traffic accidents,” said Eros.

“They’re really pretty adamant about that one. Really there’s only two options out there because the other ones are on paper but they’re not really viable.”

Between 2010 and 2019 there were 63 collisions at that intersection: three were fatal and 27 were serious injuries, according to MTI.

MTI estimates it will cost $4 million to implement the intersection design that has no left turns off PR 210 and added turning lanes on Highway 12, with construction planned to begin next summer.

—With files from Svjetlana Mlinarevic