Manitoba highway providing link to cross-border trading corridor getting $19.6M upgrade

The provincial government is spending $19.6 million to reconstruct a stretch of highway in south central Manitoba that provides a link to the north-south trading corridor across the Canada-United States border.

Highway 3 runs through Pilot Mound and Crystal City, and connects to Highway 34, which leads to the border between Manitoba and North Dakota.

The highway is "an important east-west corridor that serves agriculture and construction industries. It is alsoan important north andsouth trade corridor, connecting to the international border crossingin the south," said Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Doyle Piwniuk at a news conference Monday.

The surface is in poor condition and requires it to be reconstructed.

Once construction is completed, expected to be in fall 2023, the five-kilometre stretch of highway will be able to operate without weightrestrictions for vehicles, Piwniuk said.

Theproject includes grade widening,intersection improvements, culvert replacements and resurfacing, andwilladd partially and fully-paved shoulders onhighway curves.

The announcement comes as another vital link across the international border, Highway 75 at Emerson, has been blockaded by anti-vaccine mandate protesters since Thursday.