The town of Carberry wants the province to think long-term when it comes to improving safety at a highway intersection just north of the community that was the site of a tragic crash. The intersection of Highways 1 and 5 was the site of the deadliest crash in Manitoba’s history in June 2023, when a mini-bus full of Dauphin-area seniors was hit by a semi. Seventeen people died as a result of the accident.
Mayor Ray Muirhead told 680 CJOB that construction of an overpass has been floated as an option to keep the intersection safer, and it’s something he feels is the best solution. “I just hope we all can get on the same page and we can get something done,” Muirhead said. “This has been decades in the making — this has been a source of contention in our community for literally decades.”
A provincial spokesperson wouldn’t confirm if the option of installing an overpass is being looked at, but said three improvement options identified earlier in the summer — a roundabout, R-cut, and median-widening — are currently in the evaluation phase. At a community meeting about the intersection in July, a representative of Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure said smaller changes had already been implemented, including rehabilitated rumble strips, intersection signs with flashing lights, and a reinforced speed limit in the area. Larger-scale changes are expected to begin later this year, with a preferred design to be identified, a report to be drawn up by spring 2025, and work beginning later that year through 2026.
While an overpass was discussed at that meeting, the province said it was considering the other three options. Muirhead, however, says he understands an overpass is once again being considered as a potential solution, and his fellow members of council agree it’s the best choice for the community. “That was supposed to be a longer-term option — maybe 20, 25 years down the road, but apparently it’s back on the table, so we as a council unanimously said, ‘we want to see the overpass’. “We think that’s the way to go… for us it seemed like a no-brainer.”
The Town of Carberry has formally endorsed a grade-separated interchange — or overpass — as the community’s choice for improving the safety of the infamous intersection of Highway 5 and the Trans-Canada Highway. Carberry Mayor Ray Muirhead told the Sun that a majority of councillors voted for the interchange option at a council meeting last month. “I think if (the province) came back after the whole process was completed and say, ‘Yes, we’ve decided to go with an overpass,’ I think that would be a relief,” the mayor said. “And then, I know, we as a town would really push (for) that — we’d make sure that it wouldn’t stall out.”
In June 2023, 17 Dauphin-area seniors were killed when the bus they were in collided with a semi-trailer at the intersection. The interchange was not one of the three “medium-term” intersection improvement options presented by the province after the government announced in January that it was committed to spending $12 million to improve the intersection’s safety. Instead, it was a “long-term” option that the province said would be years down the road.
Since then, the province has sought feedback from community members, hosting an open house at the Carberry Community Memorial Hall in July during which residents were invited to share their preferred option. “The general consensus in the community was lights — a lot of them say lights, but most of them say overpass,” Muirhead said. The three medium-term options presented in a road safety report in January included a roundabout, widening the median at the intersection, and a new “RCUT” intersection design that is widely used in the U.S. in which drivers turn onto a main road and make a U-turn at a one-way median. Traffic signals and lowered speed limits were options considered by the report authors, but they said evidence suggested that those measures would not be effective at this intersection.
An interchange was presented in the report as a long-term option, as it would require significant planning and analysis due to cost and potential impacts on surrounding communities. At the January press conference, the province said that an interchange or overpass would come with a price tag of about $100 million and a 20-year-plus timeline. At the time, the premier said while the report showed that the safest option is the roundabout, the RCUT intersection is comparable to an interchange in terms of safety. Muirhead told the Sun that a roundabout or an RCUT design would be a more complicated option for drivers. “The easier, the better,” he said, adding that an overpass would keep traffic moving on the highway.
In an emailed statement to the Sun, the province said the functional design stage is underway and the department will share the options and evaluation findings for public feedback this fall. Construction on the project is expected to be completed by the fall of 2026, the statement said. Muirhead said he recently received confirmation from the consulting company undertaking the planning work that the town’s preference has been forwarded on for the next stage of the design process.
The town of Carberry has taken a step forward in its goal of improving safety at a deadly intersection where 17 seniors lost their lives in a horrific accident last summer. On June 15, 2023, a bus carrying 25 Dauphin-area seniors heading to the Sand Hills Casino, south of Carberry, collided with a semi-trailer truck at the intersection of Highway 1 (Trans-Canada Highway) and Highway 5, near the community located about 160 kilometres west of Winnipeg. A total of 17 seniors who were travelling on the bus that day lost their lives, while several others on the bus sustained injuries, including the driver of the bus whose injuries were so severe he now requires assisted living.
While the crash made headlines and raised questions about safety at what is currently a stop-sign controlled intersection, Carberry Mayor Ray Muirhead said that within the community there had been concerns raised for “decades” about that intersection, and raised long before last year’s deadly crash. He added the local fire department estimates they respond to between four and six calls every year at the intersection. “We’ve been asking for this for decades and well before the tragedy last year,” Muirhead said. “For years it’s been a real bone of contention in this community. “And it’s gotten to the point now that anytime you hear the sirens or see the emergency vehicles you just assume that something happened at that intersection, and that’s where they are heading.”
According to Muirhead, since the crash, the NDP government has pledged to fund both “short-term” and “long-term” fixes to improve safety at the corner, and he said the province has already taken several short-term steps including installing increased signage, increased rumble strips, and improved lighting. The province has also presented the town as well as other stakeholders with several options for a long-term solution at the intersection, with one of those options being the construction of a grade-separated interchange (overpass) Other options offered by the province include the installation of street lights at the corner, and the construction of a roundabout. During a council meeting last month, Carberry council voted unanimously to support plans for an overpass at the intersection. “The vote was unanimous around the table in favour of an overpass-style project, and we believe that is what the majority in the community support as well,” Muirhead said. “We want to make this as simple as possible for drivers and as safe as possible, and we all agreed the overpass is the way to go.”
Muirhead added there are several other stakeholders, including neighbouring municipalities, also being asked by the province to select which plan they would support, and although he doesn’t know what other groups will decide, he says he feels most are leaning towards building an overpass. “I am optimistic that most think this is the way to go, so I think we’re going to see even more support for it as we go forward,” he said. The NDP government will make the final decision on what happens long-term at the intersection, and at a media conference in January, the province said an overpass project could cost as much as $100 million and could take more than 20 years to complete. Muirhead says the province should do whatever they can to ensure they prevent more tragedy at what has now become an infamous intersection. “We need to get this right before we lose more lives,” he said.
