Winnipeggers can voice ideas for Portage and Main at first public consultation Wednesday – Winnipeg | 24CA News
If you will have passionate concepts about the way forward for Winnipeg’s most iconic intersection, you possibly can share your ideas with town in particular person Wednesday on the first of a number of public consultations about Portage and Main.
Winnipeggers could make their voices heard at a pop-up data session at 201 Portage Ave., starting at 11 a.m. Wednesday.
An elevated danger of water injury to the underground concourse means the well-known intersection must be utterly excavated within the close to future, so town launched a survey final month asking Winnipeggers for his or her suggestions on a reimagined use of the house.
Several potentialities, together with a sky backyard, a creative monument over the intersection, multimedia lighting and lookout towers have been floated as a part of an internet survey.
The metropolis’s principal planner, Kurtis Kowalke, informed 680 CJOB’s The Start that civic leaders aren’t essentially writing off the concept of opening the intersection to pedestrians — no less than not utterly.
“All the ideas that we’re looking at are intended to be flexible,” Kowalke stated.
“For example, whatever replaces the barricades in the future could be openable — so when we have big celebrations like a Blue Bombers win, it’s much easier to access that space in an accessible way.”
Since the intersection must be ripped up anyway, he stated, it’s a possibility for town to make some much-needed modifications to Portage and Main.
“The stakeholders we have talked to do see the intersection as a very important destination. It’s got a very high concentration of people that work in the area, take transit in the area.
“More and more people are moving into the area, and they do see it as worthy of improvements.”
The thought of reopening Portage and Main to pedestrian foot visitors was the topic of a 2018 plebiscite, wherein 65 per cent of Winnipeg voters elected to maintain the busy intersection closed to pedestrians — though election outcomes confirmed that a lot of the ‘no’ vote got here from residents who didn’t reside within the space.
Kowalke stated there have been hundreds of responses to the net survey to date.
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