It’s been a good spring for bad road stories.
To be fair, it’s prime time for it — the season of frost boils, weight restrictions and ruts from vehicles and machinery on gravel roads that are still firming up.
Even by the standards of spring, though, it feels like it’s been hard to drive any distance in the last few months without at least one wince, flinch or vague worry about mechanics’ bills when you inevitably hit a surface break you were trying to avoid.
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Nor is it limited to a single bad winter. Much of the frustration expressed over social media has built up over months or years of unfinished repairs or neglect.
It’s irritating. For those who have damaged vehicles, it’s expensive.
For agriculture and the overall economy, poorly maintained highways and gaps in the network of RTAC routes (those built up to handle heavy truck traffic even while other highways are under weight restrictions) are bad for business.
In spring 2022, overland flooding cut off agribusinesses in communities such as Holland from getting their goods to Winnipeg. In reality, that disruption was caused by limited flooding on a single highway, PTH 2. Although the road map implied several options for a detour, none of those routes were RTAC-rated. The lack of properly rated north-south options forced those businesses to add hundreds of kilometres to each trip until their main trade artery reopened.
The incident raised an outcry about the lack of north-south RTAC routes in the area and the state of local highways in general.
Among the complaints, residents pointed to the deteriorating shoulders and monster potholes on PTH 34 and rough driving on the neighbouring PTH 5, both of which, they noted, significantly impact farmers who bring loaded grain trucks or semis down them.
Governments from both sides of the political spectrum have noted the need for robust road systems.
In 2021, the Progressive Conservative government proposed an expanded network of RTAC routes. Once done, 36.5 per cent of the province’s all-weather roads would have been part of that trade and commerce road network.
In June 2022, following a rash of water-damaged roads, the same government promised $1.5 billion for a three-year highway improvement plan.
The latest budget, tabled by the NDP, noted the need to invest in trade corridors, including roads, if Manitoba businesses are to stay competitive and make their mark on the world stage.
It laid out $500 million in capital investment “to repair and rebuild Manitoba’s highways and public infrastructure to spur economic development opportunities.”
The province’s 2024-25 Strategic Infrastructure Investment Plan, in the back half of the budget document, noted $506 million for airport runway and highway investment (compared to $563 million in the 2023 budget and $429 million in 2022), while highway infrastructure maintenance was slated for $139 million (compared to $137 million in 2023 and $145 million in 2022).
But the same budget was highly critical of the last government’s tactics on capital investment.
“The choice to borrow more at higher interest rates for 2023/24 capital projects is a significant contributor to provincial debt and debt servicing costs,” the NDP said, later adding that “Projects were continued or even accelerated, leading to increased borrowing and debt-servicing cost that will be felt for years to come.”
There is no question that provincial governments must strike a balance between the projects we would like to do and the resources available to do them.
The NDP argues that they’ve got that balance. Their five-year rolling infrastructure plan (2024-2029) “targets financially responsible levels of growth, support for the economy, and meaningful state-of-good-repair investments in public infrastructure.” They’ve “launched a blue-ribbon panel to ensure that investments in roads and highways are informed by local leaders and municipal officials and are in the best interests of the public.”
How the theory meets reality once bills start to come in has yet to be seen.
In the meantime, I know a highway or two that could stand a little TLC.
