Inner City Beltway, The Second Half of The Perimeter Plan
This roadway is what was to be part of a two ring road system, with the outer Perimeter Highway, and an inner ring. The inner ring was initially tabled in the 1960s and was slow to progress.
The inner ring, also sometimes referred to as the inner city beltway, was to be (Route 17) the Chief Peguis Trail to the north, heading west to Route 96 (the Moray Bridge), circling to Route 165 (Bishop Grandin Blvd), and from there to a point near Northern Blower on Route 37 (Regent). Several years ago a group working with a councellor, worked to stop the loop from going into the Transcona area, and had the roadway's land designated a natural prairie grass park. From this point on Regent, the road was supposed to loop north back to Route 17 (Chief Peguis). The current plan has had to move the eastern portion to Plessis Road. Plessis Road is not as suited to the required connection and space for intersections, but is the only remaining viable option.
While construction of the east west Bishop Grandin portion was done years ago, the northern portions have remained unlinked, with only the short portion between Route 52 (Main Street) and Lagimodiere. This has provided an effective link over the Red River, but the short span of road leaves much of the north part of the city with difficult navigation choices on a east west basis, often pushing major cross town traffic to use residential roads and regional arteries like Inkster, MacIvor and Springfield Roads.
The city of Winnipeg completed the extension of Route 17 (Chief Peguis Trail) to Lagimodiere Blvd in December 2011. This brings the inner ring road one step further to completion.
The absence of a link between the intersection of Route 52 (Main) and Route 17 (Chief Peguis) toward Route 90 (Brookside) makes east-west travel difficult, and is an important link for the north part of town to significant areas like the Airport and Red River Community College, as well as the future CentrePort (an inland port).
The land for these links is owned by the city and simply awaits the laying of roadway. These type of major traffic arteries are designed to carry crosstown traffic efficiently with fewer environmentally damaging starts and stops. Further these roadways are designed to move traffic away from direct contact with residential streets.
Read more about this topic: Perimeter Highway (Winnipeg)
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