1946 – 2026 Watching Steinbach Grow: Street paving prompts parallel parking

OCTOBER 24, 1947—Maple Leaf Construction has begun laying the last strip of asphalt pavement on Steinbach’s Main Street, and a few days of good weather should see the job completed by the end of October.

The project will be topped off next summer with the pouring of a ‘seal coat’ of thin oil.

The paving project was originally estimated to cost $35,000, but final figures are expected to be lower. Money has been borrowed from Mills & Spence Ltd. at 3.5 percent repayable in 10 equal annual payments.

In an effort to protect the new pavement from traffic this winter, Steinbach Council held a special meeting to pass a bylaw for parallel parking in the centre of the street along the paved portion.

The bylaw will remain in effect until the middle of 1948 to give the new pavement a chance to cure properly. Three yellow strips will be painted along the centre of the street to indicate the proper parking spaces.

One of the arguments in favour of the new bylaw was that the driveways would then not be continually blocked by parked cars. The parked cars in the centre of the street would also automatically create a single lane each way, cutting down traffic hazards.

The main idea was that this action was imperative if Steinbach was to have the kind of street it is paying for.

With the new parking bylaw, another reminder of days gone by will also be eliminated. Storekeepers and others with hitching rails in front of their premises will find there is no further use for them. Many have indicated they will be moving them to parking lots at the rear of business premises.