On Tuesday, February 20, Niverville’s council voted in favour of tendering the design for the reconstruction of Highway 311 west to engineering company Morrison Hershfield.
This decision comes one year after council held an open house where Morrison Hershfield presented three preliminary mock-up designs to the public. The design boards were intended to show various options to address forecasted heavy traffic flows on that side of town.
The section up for redesign is a one-mile stretch between Krahn Road and Wallace Road. Both intersections will see some major changes with the new design.
A number of factors have played into council’s decision to proceed with highway reconstruction in this area. First and foremost, promises of a major movie studio and hotel are expected to increase traffic.
Council also anticipates that this stretch of road, which reaches the western border of town, will in time be developed into a commercial corridor, with more and more franchises expected to see the opportunity of doing business in Niverville due to its continued growth.
Last spring, Transportation and Infrastructure Minister, Doyle Piwniuk announced a $40.6 million investment into improvements along Highway 311 west.
Following last year’s open house, the three designs created by Morrison Hershfield were presented to the province.
“The province has since approved a recommended path for a couple of the options and so now we go into detailed design,” says Niverville CAO Eric King. “It will probably take the better part of this year and we could go into construction in 2025 if the funding and everything aligns.”
Council will pass the province’s recommendations on to the engineers as they prepare the final reconstruction design.
Those recommendations will include the construction of a roundabout on the highway between Wallace and Krahn Roads. Wallace Road traffic would then be rerouted to the roundabout.
What is still up for debate is whether a traffic light will be installed at the intersection of Krahn Road or, instead, a second roundabout. This decision will be left to the province.
“The province dictates a lot of this because this is a [provincial road],” King says.
The cost to have Morrison Hershfield draw up the newest design comes to around $237,000.
Mayor Myron Dyck says that this will be partly funded through a cost-share initiative with the developers who choose to develop along this stretch of highway.
“Council’s giving the CAO the means to be able to negotiate with the developers at such a time as development happens in and around those intersections… because they’re [the ones] benefitting from it,” Dyck says.
