Manitoba·NewAfter more than a year of construction, improvements at a major Steinbach intersection are finally done.Upgrades at Loewen Boulevard and Highway 12 were long needed in quickly growing city: engineerJura McIlraith · CBC News · Posted: Dec 13, 2025 7:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 3 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 5 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.A Steinbach, Man., city engineer says an annual traffic count program determined the intersection of Loewen Boulevard and Highway 12 was overdue for upgrades, which began in 2023 and were recently completed. (Jura McIlraith/CBC)Traffic is flowing freely and more smoothly at a major Steinbach intersection after $12 million in upgrades and more than a year of construction.Construction at the intersection of Loewen Boulevard and Highway 12 (Brandt Street in the southeastern Manitoba city) began in June 2024. Vehicles were able to drive on the upgraded roadway without and delays as of Nov. 20.Pita Pit franchise owner Simrangit Badwal is glad to see the construction come to a close. He and co-owner Jatin Bajaj bought the storefront on the intersection’s northwest corner in November 2023, unaware there would be months of construction in the area.”We had a good response from the community and sales were picking up and it was starting to go well in the summer [of 2024],” Badwal said.But then he got a notice in July 2024 that the intersection upgrade would affect his business.”They closed the main entrance to the store,” he said.Simrangit Badwal says he and Jatin Bajaj, co-owners of the Steinbach Pita Pit, had to use their own money to help sustain the business during construction. (Submitted by Simrangit Badwal)Within the first week of construction, their sales dropped by 50 per cent. As a result, he estimates he and Bajaj had to put in $50,000 of their own money to help keep the business running. Badwal says if they had known about the coming construction, they would not have bought the location.Customers thought the store was closed, and the owners resorted to Facebook and radio ads to try to let people know they were still open, said Badwal.Even with construction done, they’re still facing challenges.”There has been a disconnect as well with the people,” Badwal said. “Now we have to do some promotion to [get] the people to come back in again.”Steinbach city engineer Aaron Rach says the upgrades were much needed in the quickly growing city, which saw its population almost double from around 9,000 in 2001 to nearly 18,000 by 2021, according to Statistics Canada data.An annual traffic count program determined the intersection of Loewen and Highway 12 was operating at a level of “service F, which is basically the lowest it can get,” Rach said, and was the lowest level of service in the city.”It definitely met the warrant for improvements.”An early sketch of the improvements to the intersection. The colours indicate the type of pavement involved in the upgrades — blue for concrete, yellow for asphalt and green for sidewalks. The city ended up doing more sidewalk work than this early sketch indicates, a city engineer says. (Submitted by City of Steinbach)The improvements include a second left-hand turn lane onto Loewen for vehicles heading south, and dedicated left-turn lanes on Loewen for east and westbound cars to support for higher traffic volumes. Rach said better pedestrian and active transit infrastructure, like sidewalks, were also included in the upgrades.Crews removed overhead powerlines, and renewed underground drainage and sewer and water mains at the same time.The cost of the $12-million project was split roughly evenly between the City of Steinbach and the provincial government, since both own infrastructure at the junction, said Rach.’Grateful for the people that just kept coming’Bev Penner, who moved her business to the southeast corner of the intersection in May of this year, is glad to see the upgrades.”It was worth the little bit of inconvenience that we had,” said Penner, who owns Prairie Oils and Provisions.Construction was on the opposite side of the road when she opened at her current location. When crews moved two months later, her business lost access to one driveway.They were fortunate to have a second access on a side street, Penner says, and she posted step-by-step directions on how to get to the storefront on the company’s social media pages.Bev Penner says the improved intersection is worth the disruption she and her customers faced to access her store. (Jura McIlraith/CBC)”We do have people coming in, saying, ‘Oh, I’m finally coming to you now that I can actually get to you,'” she said.”Well, you could always get to us, but it is just more convenient having this driveway open.”Prairie Oils and Provisions celebrated its 13th anniversary the same weekend construction wrapped up. Having a customer base built up over those years helped sustain them through it, said Penner.”They still came and they zigzagged their way around the construction and found us,” Penner said. “We were just grateful for the people that just kept coming.”While Penner can’t say how the construction impacted her business, because she has nothing at her current location to compare it to, she knows the corner will be a prime spot.WATCH | Traffic flowing at Steinbach intersection after months of construction:Traffic flowing at newly upgraded Steinbach intersectionAfter nearly two years of construction, business owners at the corner of Loewen Boulevard and Highway 12 in Steinbach, Man., are happy to see the project come to an end.The intersection is also much improved, says Penner, who has lived in Steinbach for more than 30 years.Badwal echoes that sentiment, saying the upgrades will improve traffic flow.”It’s much better for the traffic, for sure, as Steinbach is growing,” but it’s unfortunate the impact lasted so long, he said.While the construction is largely done, some cleanup is still in progress, said Rach.”The pylons are just delineating traffic until that curb work can be replaced,” he said.Contractors will return early next spring to complete that work, officially ending the project.ABOUT THE AUTHORJura McIlraith is a CBC Manitoba reporter based in Steinbach. She started her journalism career covering stories in the southeast for The Carillon. Since then, she has worked for multiple print publications including the Winnipeg Free Press and in radio for 680 CJOB. You can reach her at jura.mcilraith@cbc.ca.
After more than a year, Steinbach businesses glad to see end to construction at key intersection
