Provincial Trunk Highways 100 and 101, also known as the Perimeter Highway, form a beltway around the Canadian city ofWinnipeg, Manitoba. The Perimeter Highway is approximately in length and serves as an alternate route around Winnipeg for through traffic, as there are no freeways in the city.
History and Future Plans
The Perimeter Highway is a four-lane divided expressway that consists of a mixture of interchanges and at-grade intersections. It was originally built in 1955 to bypass city centre rush hour traffic. The southern segment of the Perimeter Highway, or South Perimeter, is the Trans-Canada Highway's official Winnipeg Bypass and designated as Highway 100. The northern segment, or North Perimeter is a provincial highway designated as PTH 101. However, PTH 101 is part of Canada's National Highway System while PTH 100 is not. The South Perimeter Highway bridge across the Red River and roadway at Pembina Highway/PTH 75 south was constructed in 1958. The job was tendered to Peter Leitch Construction Ltd. at a cost of $188,670. In December 1957, Dominion Bridge was awarded the contract to supply the structural steel for the overpass. The Perimeter Highway was originally unconnected between PTH 59 and PTH 15 as PTH 59 had received significant upgrades, making the need for a northeast section less pressing. PTH 59 continued to serve as the de facto northeast leg of the Perimeter until the mid-1990s, when PTH 59 and PTH 15 were connected. The last remaining two-lane section was the PTH 59 north interchange, which was upgraded over a three-year span ending in 2018. The highway now encircles Winnipeg as a four-lane roadway. Improvements were made to the western segment of the highway in the early 2010s when PTH 190, Centreport Canada Way, was constructed. In addition to the interchange that connected to this new highway, a flyover was constructed over Saskatchewan Avenue and the adjacent railway crossing; and the median was closed at the entrance to Assiniboia Downs leaving only right-in/right-out access from the southbound side. Planning is currently underway to upgrade the South Perimeter to a six-lane freeway. The first execution of this plan included closing multiple medians and minor accesses to the South Perimeter, and replacing others with right-in/right-out accesses. In 2020, the Manitoba government announced that the first major upgrade would be to replace the traffic signals at St. Mary's Road with an interchange, construction for which is planned to begin in 2021 and finish in 2023.
Exit list
Exit numbering begins at Fermor Avenue and increases clockwise.
Inner city beltway, the second half of the Perimeter plan
This roadway is what was to be part of a two ring road system, with the outer Perimeter Highway, and an inner ring. The inner ring was initially tabled in the 1960s and was slow to progress. The inner ring, also sometimes referred to as the inner city beltway, was to be the Chief Peguis Trail to the north, heading west to Route 96, circling to Route 165, and from there to a point near Northern Blower on Route 37. Several years ago a group working with a councillor, worked to stop the loop from going into the Transcona area, and had the roadway's land designated a natural prairie grass park. From this point on Regent, the road was supposed to loop north back to Route 17. The current plan has had to move the eastern portion to Plessis Road. Plessis Road is not as suited to the required connection and space for intersections, but is the only remaining viable option. While construction of the east–west Bishop Grandin portion was done years ago, the northern portions have remained unlinked, with only the short portion between Route 52 and Lagimodière. This has provided an effective link over the Red River, but the short span of road leaves much of the north part of the city with difficult navigation choices on an east–west basis, often pushing major cross town traffic to use residential roads and regional arteries like Inkster, MacIvor and Springfield Roads. The city of Winnipeg completed the extension of Route 17 to Lagimodière Blvd in December 2011. This brings the inner ring road one step further to completion. The absence of a link between the intersection of Route 52 and Route 17 toward Route 90 makes east-west travel difficult, and is an important link for the north part of town to significant areas like the Airport and Red River Community College, as well as the future CentrePort. The land for these links is owned by the city and simply awaits the laying of roadway. These type of major traffic arteries are designed to carry crosstown traffic efficiently with fewer environmentally damaging starts and stops. Further these roadways are designed to move traffic away from direct contact with residential streets.
