snowman5 said "I've said this for well over a year (and I'll say it once again) that this project is going to look stupid for generations to come when it's all done, just to save a buck. Yes people, instead of the tried and trued results from the bridges over the river, both on Eighteenth and First to be building one bridge at a time... They're doing both at once. Highways and Manitoba Infrastructure has decided that it's cheaper and easier not to build just one bridge first beside the existing and wait to remove and replace it with a second, once the first is complete and operational to keep the flow of traffic moving. I don't need the lecture on how money and time can be saved by having the contract fulfilled by doing both the North & Southbound structures at once. I get it, the bridges are there to serve a purpose and a function, aesthetics is irrelevant. But come on... This "swoop" in the road will look ridiculous and is completely avoidable. So what's going in the place of the bridge sitting there, right now? ...Trees and grass? Christ! At least put the pedestrian bridge there, so Highways doesn't need to allocate to buy up more land, if money is the reason. What the hell has changed since the First street bridge? Highways had a $h!+load more space to do that there, but decided to have the end result of keeping the street straight. The same attempt was done, keeping the road straight, just North of our proposed new swoop on 18th going over the river by doing one bridge at a time. So the questions needs to be asked again... Why this time? How much money does it really save our government? Why didn't our city speak up when the options were presented? Why isn't there proper pedestrian access for the West side? If traffic flow is such an concern (or excuse) during construction, why doesn't Manitoba Infrastructure work with the city to finish Pacific Ave. and have it joint up with 26th street? ...Or help rejoin 26th street back to 18th by extending Hilton? Doesn't anyone else think that 18th street looks like a mess of "patchwork of projects" and still looks and feels incomplete? ...Because it is and always has been a series of quick fixes. Why is the main artery of transportation so disjointed? Shouldn't Brandon and the people who drive through Brandon deserve a better roadway system traveling North & South? This is just another great example of "Just give them the minimum of what's required" from our Provincial government. As far as I'm concern, 18th should've been two or three lanes each way from an overpass at the Trans Can. running STRAIGHT through to the 110 turn off, years ago. But I'm not surprised. How can we get a better road if Highways can't even recognize the condition of the Trans Can. at Portage. The main corridor that runs through and connects our Province is crumbling in one part, over crowded in other parts and unfinished in the remaining... Just gets one "band-aid fix" after another. Which just brings us right back to "the swoop", to me this is bridge project will look and feel like a cheap fix and it will be like that for fifty or sixty years. More people should be feeling cheated out of a good job that's not getting done. This could be done better.
Just my opinion, I could be wrong. "
If I remember correctly they went with the curved bridges because it displaces the fewest people. No matter what there were significant changes to the south side of the bridge that are unavoidable, but on the north side several houses west of the current bridge had to be removed to build straight bridges.
Looking at 18th as a whole, from Park to the bridge there simply isn't the space to add 2 whole lanes. But I'd agree that it should be 4 lane from the TC to Kirkaldy.