The intersection of Highway #12 and Loewen Boulevard has moved to second on the Steinbach city council list of traffic problems that need to be fixed. City councillor Cari Penner says the latest traffic count study found some eastbound motorists on Loewen Boulevard are waiting almost seven minutes to cross Highway #12.

"The traffic count clearly showed that there's an unacceptable level of service at that intersection. Crossing Highway #12 (from east to west), there's a 412-second delay which is unacceptable. That's higher than any other intersection in the city. We're hoping that we can present that to the Department of Highways and see if they can help us with that and make some plans for the future because it will only get busier."

Councillor Michael Zwaagstra agrees.

"The wait time of 412 seconds, that's almost seven minutes, that is beyond any wait that we see at any other intersection. The reality is that we have more and more traffic every year and we need to look at some options there."

Penner says it will be a complicated upgrade because land will have to be purchased to properly reconfigure the intersection. City council has agreed to formally ask the province to start developing a plan.

Meanwhile, the need for traffic signals at Highway #52 and Industrial Road remains the top priority as far as requests from the city to Manitoba Infrastructure.