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The great debate returns… with a $73-million price tag

Mayor crosses street in decades-old controversy after report reveals repairs to membrane protecting concourse will cost $73M, disrupt traffic up to five years

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2024/03/01/mayor-calls-to-reo...

PORTAGE and Main could reopen to pedestrians by summer 2025 after decades of debate and political wrangling over the fate of the iconic downtown intersection.

On Friday, Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham announced he’s now in favour of removing the concrete barricades at each corner preventing pedestrian crossing after a new report said it would cost $73 million to repair the leaking membrane under the concrete that protects the concourse below it.

The repairs would involve major construction-caused traffic disruptions for up to five years at what is now Winnipeg’s sixth-busiest downtown intersection, the report said.

A motion is being drafted to call for the pedestrian intersection to reopen by summer 2025 to coincide with the launch of the new Winnipeg Transit route network. The engineering report goes to the city’s property and development committee on Thursday.

“The goal is to get this approved by the end of the month,” said Gillingham, who previously was opposed to reopening the intersection. He said learning the costs and inconvenience of keeping the concourse open changed his mind.

“I think it’s time we put this question to bed once and for all and move onto more important issues like addressing homelessness, safety, housing and improving commuting options for people throughout our entire city.”

The so-called “coldest and windiest corner in Canada” has been closed to pedestrian traffic since 1979 under an agreement the city signed with a developer who agreed to build two office towers, a hotel, a bank and an underground mall. The city agreed to force people who wanted to cross the street to do it underground, benefiting businesses in the mall.

Permanently closing the city’s portion of the underground concourse could take up to five years and cost $20 to $50 million, Gillingham said.

“It’s too soon to tell at this point, but there wouldn’t be access through the concourse once it’s decommissioned,” he said.

Public works chairwoman Coun. Janice Lukes said Portage and Main has lower volumes of traffic than other downtown intersections and is the only one closed to pedestrians.

Funding and research to ensure the intersection is safe for pedestrians would come through the city budget’s road safety plan, said Lukes (Waverley West).

Former mayor Brian Bowman promised to reopen the intersection while in office, but after 65 per cent of voters registered their opposition in a non-binding 2018 plebiscite, he dropped it.

Instead of a plebiscite, Gillingham and property and development chairwoman Coun. Sherri Rollins will draft a motion calling for Portage and Main to reopen to pedestrians and the mayor expects the majority on council will support it.

“There’s a lot that has changed in the past six years,” said Gillingham, who maintained his opposition to taking down the pedestrian barriers during his 2022 mayoral campaign, pointing to the 2018 plebiscite and saying it would be “disrespectful” to the public to ignore the results.

However, Winnipeggers were in the dark concerning how much it would cost and how long it would take to replace the membrane, he said Friday. Since the non-binding vote, a global pandemic has changed commuting and work patterns and a transit network design is helping to improve traffic flow, he said.

“We have information today we did not have in 2018 and I did not have during the election in 2022,” the mayor said.

Coun. Jeff Browaty, who was one of the loudest voices in opposition to opening the intersection in 2019, said civic officials still don’t have enough information and he doesn’t think there’s been adequate consultation with affected property owners.

James Richardson & Sons issued a brief statement Friday saying that it is “in favour of improving and revitalizing Winnipeg’s downtown, including taking the step of opening the Portage and Main intersection to pedestrian traffic.”

“We understand that the City (of Winnipeg) is considering closing the underground pathway as part of the re-opening of the intersection to aboveground pedestrian traffic, but without time to consider the details of such a plan, it is too early for us to comment further,” the statement said.

A prominent tenant at Portage and Main applauded the push to remove the concrete barricades.

“Not only do we care in terms of the downtown at large, but… as tenants that are going to be accessing that intersection every day,” said Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Loren Remillard.

Four or five years of anticipated traffic disruptions would add to the challenges already facing downtown, Remillard said.

“This isn’t just the responsible decision,” he said. “It is the only logical decision.”

Federal Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal, a former city councillor, said he supports “100 per cent” closing the underground concourse and removing the barriers.

“I wish we would have done it 15 years ago,” the St. Boniface MP said at an unrelated news conference in the city Friday.

“COVID really did a number on the underground pedestrian walkway and infrastructure is expensive, and I think it’s the right move,” Vandal said.

“I’ve long advocated for opening up Portage and Main when I was a (city) councillor… I think this is an example of a good idea will always rise to the top. And it’s quite clear that there were challenges with closing pedestrian traffic and maintaining the underground vitality.” Premier Wab Kinew, who opposed the reopening in the 2018 plebiscite, didn’t offer provincial help to repair the membrane to keep the concourse open.

“Mayor Gillingham and I share a commitment to downtown redevelopment and, if he believes this is a cost-effective path forward, then our government won’t stand in the way,” he said in a prepared statement.

— with files from Maggie Macintosh, Malak Abas and Katie May

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.camailto:carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Closed intersection timeline

December 1976: City council awards a contract to build an underground parking garage and pedestrian corridor at Portage and Main, and agrees to prohibit pedestrians from crossing the iconic intersection for 40 years.

February 1979: A city committee votes to immediately ban pedestrian traffic at the intersection, although crossing from the south corner was permitted to continue until a connection was completed between the concourse and street.

March 1979: A caravan of protesters — many using wheelchairs — make three circuits of the intersection to protest the closure. A Winnipeg police sergeant told them, “I must warn you that you are in violation of a traffic-control device.” Officers wrote down the names of about a dozen protesters and gave them to the Crown attorney’s office.

August 2014: Mayoral candidate Brian Bowman holds a campaign news conference to announce he would open the intersection to pedestrians, with the goal of getting it done by 2019. “We’ll all be here when the Winnipeg Jets win the Stanley Cup,” he said.

October 2018: Voters re-elect Bowman to a second term. Winnipeggers also vote overwhelmingly (65 per cent “no”) against reopening the intersection in a non-binding plebiscite.

October 2022: Scott Gillingham is elected mayor. He said during the campaign that he was opposed to reopening the intersection. The second-place candidate, former mayor Glen Murray, previously supported reopening Portage and Main but said that month that “the people have spoken about it once already.”

April 2023: The city releases a discussion paper outlining the issues surrounding the intersection, including a massive project to repair the membrane protecting the Winnipeg Square concourse and options to improve pedestrian access.