Construction at on Loewen Boulevard and Brandt Street is starting back up next week.
The City of Steinbach says the project will officially resume on April 28, noting all traffic on Brandt Street will be redirected to use the southbound lanes south of Loewen Boulevard.
This is so the contractor can complete installing box culverts across Brandt Street's northbound lanes, the City says. Once it's time to cross the southbound lanes with box culverts, traffic will be shifted back onto northbound lanes.
Aaron Rach, head of the city's engineering department, says that's just the beginning of the work to be done.
"Once the frost is out of the ground, that contractor's going to start with the surface works on Loewen Boulevard west of the highway. That's installing the concrete roadway and any asphalt work. As well, they will be starting the highway 12 southbound lanes—the excavation and road works," he says.
"Once that work is complete, they would do the underground and road works on Loewen east of the highway, then then the road works on the north bound lanes for highway 12."
He adds the reinstallation of traffic lights at the intersection is also on the checklist.
Despite all that's to be done, and some of the delays the project faced last year, Rach says the targeted completion date remains fall of 2025.
He says it's quite exciting, and is glad to get an early start on the season.
"The project is going to considerably help with delays that people were were encountering when they were going through this intersection," he says. "This was actually the worst intersection as far as level of service in the City of Steinbach."
Moving electrical aspects of the work from overhead to underground areas will also help clean up the aesthetics of the intersection, he says, adding improvements made to pedestrian and active transportation routes are also to be looked forward to.
"All these things will leave a better finished product than what was there before we started," Rach says.
While construction resumes, he asks the community to pay attention to updates released by the city of Steinbach regarding changes in traffic management.
He also asks residents to slow down and drive cautiously through the area, always staying aware of signage and workers.
The City of Steinbach thanks the community for their patience as the project continues.
Check out the progress of the site using the SteinbachOnline webcam.