For 20 years, commuters along Highway 59 have been waiting on the province to pick up where they left off and twin this major transportation corridor south of Île-des-Chênes.

There is at last some glimmer of hope that the work will finally get underway. In recent weeks, the province has announced that they’ve put out a tender for a functional design study on the highway route from Île-des-Chênes south to the intersection of Highway 52, as well as from that same corner east to Mitchell.

While the project is, in fact, closer to reality than it’s ever been, commuters should still anticipate a long wait.

Over the last two decades, advocacy groups have been rallying the province for twinning. This includes The Highway 59 Partners, a five-municipality collaborative that was headed up by the mayor of St. Pierre-Jolys.

It wasn’t until September 25 of this year that a shift was felt. On that day, members of the Eastman Regional Municipal Committee (ERMC) met with Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure (MTI), and later Lisa Naylor, Minister of Transportation. The ERMC’s goal was to nudge the province into providing some concrete assurances regarding the twinning of Highways 59 and 52.

They left with the promise of a functional design study, which is expected to begin sometime in 2026, once a design consultant has been selected. The study will consider traffic volumes and patterns as well as area topography and land acquisition.

The ERMC is comprised of 12 communities or municipalities from across southeast Manitoba, including Ritchot, Steinbach, and Ste. Anne.

When the group organized three years ago, they received a memorandum of understanding from the province. The ERMC’s mandate is to advocate for the rural southeast in four areas of public service: waterways, highways, health, and environment.

Marc Proulx is a councillor for St. Pierre-Jolys and member of the ERMC.

“We’re basically saying, ‘If there’s an issue in Ste. Anne, the other 11 of us will support them,” Proulx says. “It’s a strength in numbers sort of thing. Let’s put it this way: [the province] notices us.”

The ERMC also shares resources, helping to bring down fiscal costs for all its members.

“We’re taxed to the nines,” Proulx says. “And it’s not just one municipality. They’re all taxed too high. So how do we become fiscally responsible? We work together, sharing ideas and sharing technology. It’s just better.”

Now that Highways 59 and 52 have made it into the province’s five-year highway investment strategy, Proulx says the gears are finally in motion. The functional design phase brings it that much closer to a done deal.

That’s not to say, of course, that other highways may not sneak higher up queue if road conditions deteriorate quickly and significantly. But Proulx says the province can only put off the 59 and 52 for so long.

“The population has been increasing exponentially in the southeast corner of the province,” Proulx says. “[Between] Niverville, Île-des-Chênes, Steinbach, Mitchell, and even St. Pierre, we’re the fourth fastest growing municipality in the province. So we met with [MTI]… and they assured us that 52 and 59 is on the five-year plan because of that corner where they meet. It’s a horrendous corner.”

All this widespread growth has put an intense strain on both highways. The intersection that connects them, he says, is downright dangerous at peak times. It doesn’t help, either, that Highway 59 serves as a major trucking route between Winnipeg and the United States.

While the functional design tender is, indeed, good news, Proulx says that it’s still a matter of “hurry up and wait.”

The design process, he points out, will take a minimum of a year to 18 months to complete. At that point, stakeholders will weigh in and public consultations will take place. The design may undergo various changes throughout this process.

Once the design is finalized, it will still take another three to five years before a shovel even hits the ground.

“People expect things to get done within six months to a year,” says Proulx. “Every politician knows it doesn’t work that way, but when they tell you three to five years, now you’re going, ‘Okay, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.’”

The twinning of Highway 59 from Winnipeg to Île-des-Chênes was completed in 2006 at a cost of $41 million. At this stage, the costs for further twinning haven’t been revealed—and they likely won’t be until the design phase is complete.

It was evident, even 20 years ago, that the province recognized the importance of continued improvements to the highways south of Île-des-Chênes.

“The growing traffic volumes between Winnipeg and communities in the southeast region reflect the booming local economy,” stated a government news release of the day. “This expanded corridor will enhance capacity, promote tourism, and increase safety at the same time.”

In those 20 years, Niverville’s population has almost tripled. The population of Île-des-Chênes has seen a similar surge following the initial twinning of the highway. Two hundred new condos and townhouses were added soon after and were sold faster than they could be built.

Virtually every community in the southeast has a similar story of growth. Still, new highway infrastructure to keep up with demand has been slow in coming.