Manitoba·NewManitoba’s government is being praised by many for announcing an overpass at the intersection where 17 bus passengers were killed in 2023, even though assessments said traffic volumes didn’t justify it and other intersections in the province have seen more collisions.’Always looking at all the needs around the province, but this one is the one that we’re talking about’: KinewJosh Crabb · CBC News · Posted: Nov 24, 2025 6:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 30 minutes agoListen to this articleEstimated 6 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.The Manitoba government announced last week it will put in an overpass at the intersection of Highway 5 and the Trans-Canada Highway. (CBC)The Manitoba government is being praised by many for announcing a $100-million overpass at an intersection where 17 bus passengers were killed in a 2023 collision, even though initial assessments said traffic volumes didn’t justify it and other intersections in the province have seen more collisions.The government initially planned a $20-million restricted crossing U-turn, or RCUT, design for the intersection of the Trans-Canada Highway and Highway 5 near Carberry.That option would have required drivers making left turns from the Trans-Canada or going directly north-south on Highway 5 to instead make merges and U-turns to get where they’re going.Though it was presented earlier this year as the “preferred option” by the province’s Transportation Department, the idea was met with strong opposition from residents in the area, many of whom argued the design wouldn’t adequately address the dangers at the crossing.In last Tuesday’s throne speech, the province announced it would proceed with the overpass, at a cost expected to be “north of $100 million,” the premier said.More than a 100 protesters at a May 23, 2025, rally called on the province not to use an intersection design known as an RCUT at Highway 1 and Highway 5, saying it won’t improve safety. The province has now agreed to build an overpass instead. (Chelsea Kemp/CBC)”I think the province said they would listen, [and] they did listen,” said David Bosiak, the mayor of Dauphin, where most of the 17 victims of the June 2023 crash between a bus and a semi at the intersection were from.What the province heard from residents in the Carberry area “was contrary to what the engineers or the experts were telling them,” Bosiak said.”Yet I think given the emotion related to this situation, that’s a decision they made, and I’m good with it.”Carberry Mayor Ray Muirhead said the overpass is something the community has wanted for decades.”It’s been a long time coming,” said Muirhead, who thinks the overpass will help prevent collisions.”It’s going to be huge for the town and surrounding community and anyone who uses that highway.”But others, like Carberry resident Benny Orr, aren’t sure an overpass is the answer. Orr said the 2023 crash was terrible, and he’s concerned about safety at the intersection.”I believe that overpass might’ve avoided that accident that day, [but] maybe that accident could’ve been avoided by other means,” Orr said.Busier intersections have seen more crashesThe Trans-Canada and Highway 5 intersection has seen more fatalities over the past 10 years than any other in Manitoba, according to provincial data.However, other Trans-Canada intersections in the province have seen more collisions in total and have more traffic.In the past 10 years, 18 people have died in two fatal collisions at the Carberry intersection, according to Manitoba Public Insurance data.The intersection sees a daily average of 10,015 vehicles, and had 24 total collisions between 2013 and 2022, according to 2024 numbers from Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure.At least four other intersections on the Trans-Canada in Manitoba — none of which have overpasses — are both busier and have had more total collisions: those at Highway 16 west of Portage la Prairie, Provincial Road 207 (Deacon’s Corner), Provincial Road 248 at Elie, just west of Winnipeg and Highway 10 in Brandon. An information map in a functional design study from the province, released earlier this year, put the Carberry crossing in line with several other intersections as having a “lower combination of volume and collision rate.” From a political calculation, it might make some sense, but from an economic position, people might be challenging this.- Political scientist Christopher AdamsThat study said an RCUT could be just as effective from a safety perspective as an overpass, and that the current traffic volumes do not warrant an overpass.”An interchange is expensive and can cost $100 [million] or more,” the study said. For comparison, Manitoba’s annual capital budget for the entire highway network is approximately $515 million, the study said.Premier, PC MLA defend decisionBut Premier Wab Kinew has defended the province’s decision to go ahead with the overpass.”We’re always looking at all the needs around the province, but this one is the one that we’re talking about,” Kinew said last week in Carberry. “This is the one — I think understandably, given the terrible tragedy that happened here … that we’ve been devoting this particular time period to try and get right.”The province found a way to make the overpass work, said Kinew.Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew visited Carberry on Nov. 20, 2025 to officially announce the overpass project. (Ron Boileau/Radio-Canada)”We just looked at certain other projects that for whatever reason weren’t moving ahead, and we just kind of put that all together and came through with a path towards financing this,” he told reporters.Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor of political science at the University of Manitoba, said the decision to change course from an earlier plan and put in an overpass won’t jeopardize safety, but does seem like “a political decision by a premier who feels for those communities that were affected.”He thinks it also shows the NDP premier is looking to the province’s population outside Winnipeg, where voters tend to support the Progressive Conservatives.”I was surprised at the decision,” said Adams.”I think from a political calculation, it might make some sense, but from an economic position, people might be challenging this.”Jodie Byram, the Progressive Conservative MLA for Agassiz, where the intersection is located, supports the overpass decision, saying safety is the top priority.”Across the province, has there ever been an intersection where so many lives were lost in one particular case?” Byram said.Construction on the overpass is expected to start in 2027 and take about two and a half years to complete.ABOUT THE AUTHORJosh Crabb is a reporter with CBC Manitoba. He started reporting in 2005 at CKX-TV in Brandon, Man. After spending three years working in television in Red Deer, Alta., Josh returned to Manitoba in 2010 and has been covering stories across the province and in Winnipeg ever since.With files from Catherine Moreau and Ian Froese
Other intersections see more collisions, traffic than Carberry bus crash site slated for $100M overpass
