Two turning lanes could be coming to La Broquerie at the intersection of Highway 52 and Highway 302. 

Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure attended the La Broquerie Council Meeting earlier this week, and proposed a plan to improve the intersection.

The project is currently in the planning stages, and the plan is to add two turning lanes, one on the 52 and the other on the 210, both turning onto the 302 into the town. 

They also plan to modify the HyLife feed mill intersection, to have an entrance and an exit for the intersection. 

Reeve Ivan Normandeau says this is the first rendering they have seen, and there are a few things that they would like to see changed.  

“So hopefully they'll come back to us with a modified version just to address the concerns we had.” 

He says they have two major concerns with the plan presented. 

“Drainage, and also the increased use of Des Pignons Street coming off the highway going toward the Shell station.” 

Normandeau says drainage will need to be redone as the road will be slightly widened. 

“When they widen the road, they have to look at all the aspects, so drainage is one part of their problems when they do fix roads, so they just want to make sure that the drainage stays the way it should be.”  

He says drainage is a large concern since they have a local business on the corner of 52 and 210 that has historically had problems in the springtime.  

“We just want to make sure that drainage is done properly at that corner and that these problems don't persist, and that the business doesn't have to worry about that problem in the future.” 

Reeve Normandeau emphasizes that these turning lanes will be a great thing for the community. 

“It will make it safer, especially coming from and going to Marchand. It will make intersections safer and have some dedicated road turn offs, so it will make sense when people are turning off and not turning off.” 

He notes they closed the access point on Tretrault Road a few years ago at the request of HyLife, and he assures they will make sure that it stays closed. 

"Just so that they could have access to the whole property. We had no problems with closing that road so that made it like a private lane for them, which was great for the feed mill.” 

Next steps will begin once the province comes back to council with a revised plan. 

“They want a resolution from council that we are okay with this rendering, and at this point right now we were not in a position to do that. Hopefully when they come back with more renderings, then we can okay the new renderings and move forward.”