Engineers and planners with the City of Steinbach are working hard to stay ahead of the curve as the city continues to grow at a rapid pace. Phil Kalyta, the city's head engineer, says the key to orderly development is for the city to have future plans for streets and services laid out well ahead of time. For example, he notes their master plan for Highway #12 includes more signalized intersections as they are needed in the future. Kalyta says one of them will eventually be built in front of Mennonite Heritage Village at such time as development starts on the west side of the highway.

"We strategically designed an intersection that would fit there to service the centre of that section, west of Highway #12. So there is a fairly large intersection, similar to like what is at Park Road, designed there to service both the museum grounds and the areas west of Highway #12."

Kalyta notes the area along the west side of Highway #12 at that location is designated for commercial development.

Another future intersection will one day be built on Highway #12 at Chrysler Gate, south of Mckenzie Avenue.

"We're looking at how that area is developing right now. The east side of the highway is kind of developed in the Madison-Chrysler Gate area. We've now forecasted a bit as to how the west side of the highway should be serviced. Between our traffic consultants and Manitoba Infrastructure, we've come up with a plan for that area on the west side, so that when development occurs on that side, we have a plan that's organized and shows how the traffic is going to get on and off the highway safely and into those areas."

Meanwhile, future plans also indicate that Chrysler Gate will one day extend all the way from Highway #12 to Hespeler Street South.

Elsewhere, there is also a plan to one day extend Industrial Drive all the way to Clear Springs Road and to continue Acres Drive all the way west to Keating Road.

These are just a few examples of the detailed pre-planning the city has carried out. Kalyta notes when developers are working on plans for new structures, they are advised to first meet with the city to learn what the master plan shows.

"We encourage that they come and see us. If they have a plan or something they are even just thinking about, come see us first. We'll show them what we have envisioned and ask them what they are planning and see how we can best make their life a little easier and maybe save them a few steps in the planning process by guiding them a bit. We definitely want to encourage development, but we also want to encourage orderly development, done right the first time."

City map showing future plans for Hwy #12 North.