City looking for contractor to start Portage and Main reopening work in November

Posted on September 20, 2024 by Peggy

The City of Winnipeg says it wants work on street-level pedestrian crossings at Portage Avenue and Main Street to begin in November, with the aim of having Winnipeg’s most famous intersection once again open to foot traffic by next July.

Winnipeg city council voted in March to reopen the intersection to pedestrians. The city said at that point it wanted to have the intersection, which has been closed to above-ground pedestrian traffic for more than four decades,open by July 1, 2025.

On Friday, the city issued a tender for construction work on the reopening, which says the winning bidder is expected to begin the work by Nov. 15.

The construction is expected to be fully completed by June 27, 2025, ahead of the June 29 launch of major route changes as part of an overhaul of Winnipeg Transit’s network.

Portage and Main was closed to pedestrians at street level in 1979, after the opening of an underground concourse linking its four corners. An agreement with neighbouring property owners to keep the intersection closed to pedestrians expired in 2019.

In a 2018 plebiscite, Winnipeggers voted in favour of keeping the intersection closed to pedestrians.

But city council voted to reopen it in March, weeks after a report said it would cost $73 million to replace a waterproof membrane protecting the underground concourse, which would also cause up to five years of traffic delays.

A aerial view of Portage and Main — Construction at the intersection will last just over seven months, according to a tender issued by the city Friday. (Jaison Empson/CBC)

The contractor working on the reopening will be required to demolish and remove the existing concrete barriers at the intersection, add new curbs and sidewalks to allow crossing at all four corners, and add a curb extension at the southeast corner to allow for a shorter pedestrian crossing distance across Portage Avenue, the city’s tender says.

Work is expected to be done at the same time on all four corners of the intersection, while maintaining access to businesses in the area during the construction with “as little disruption as possible,” the city said in a Friday news release.

The tender is open to bidding until Oct. 7, with the contract set to be awarded by Nov. 8, the city says.

The city says additional design work at the intersection will be included in an upcoming preliminary design study for rapid transit downtown corridors, expected to begin in 2025.

That study “will integrate Winnipeg Transit infrastructure into the final design of the intersection” for council to consider, the city’s news release said.