More than halfway through summer, St. Adolphe residents are still waiting for their promised Main Street renewal. But Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure (MTI) says that construction should begin sometime this month.

The $3.7 million project made the provincial budget last year. After going to tender, BayView Construction was awarded the contract.

A 1.8-kilometre stretch of highway running from Highway 210 southward will undergo what the province calls a surface rehabilitation.

“The department plans to resurface the highway according to current standards to create smooth driving conditions,” says an MTI spokesperson. “This is consistent with the department’s approach at other similar locations. In the meantime, regional maintenance staff are providing routine maintenance of potholes to ensure safety for motorists and pedestrians.”

Residents and commuters can expect to be inconvenienced by construction equipment for less than two weeks, if weather allows.

According to Ritchot councillor Jason Bodnarchuk, the rehabilitation process will include the removal and replacement of the top two inches of asphalt.

Additionally, median crossings will be repaved, four catch basins replaced, and, where necessary, new concrete curbs and gutters installed.

The community’s most hectic intersection, at the corner of Highways 200 and 210, will get a new right turn lane to benefit traffic turning south onto Main Street from the Pierre Delorme bridge.

Further improvements will include an extension of the turning lane on Highway 75 to help prevent slow or stopped vehicles from pushing out into traffic.

Unlike the Main Street renewal completed in Île-des-Chênes (IDC) last year, St. Adolphe’s Main Street won’t see the addition of parking bump-outs or dedicated bike lanes.

This is likely due to the fact that St. Adolphe’s Main Street remains under provincial jurisdiction while IDC’s Main Street has now officially been transferred from the province to the RM.

It was this transfer agreement that encouraged Ritchot’s council to assume more than half of the estimated $2.7 million costs for the IDC Main Street renewal project.

“The RM of Ritchot has no plans of owning Main Street in St. Adolphe and we don’t believe the province would ever allow it,” says CAO Shane Ray. “The RM did not have a say in the types of repairs and upgrades being made to the St. Adolphe Main Street restoration project.”