'It's unsafe': Groups pushing for safe crossing at Trans Canada Trail

A push is on to fix a disconnect in the Trans Canada Trail between Headingley and Winnipeg.

Friends of the Harte Trail and the Headingley Grand Trunk Trail Association commissioned a feasibility study to build a crossing to connect the paths, and they say there are major safety concerns with the current configuration.

Jim and Tammy Anton walk long stretches of the Harte Trail, but there is a point where it comes to a sudden halt with a dangerous twist.

“Lots of times that’s where we end. We do see a lot of people trying to cross it and it’s pretty scary, you know the traffic going 100 km plus an hour,” Jim said.

The path’s western edge runs directly into the Perimeter Highway. However, this doesn’t stop everyone, as some pedestrians and cyclists will make the trek across the highway to reach the Headingley Grand Trunk Trail on the other side and vice versa.

The Antons won’t cross here, at least not anymore.

“I think last year was the last year we went by bike, walked our bikes across and it was a harrowing experience, to say the least,” Jim said.

There is a movement underway to connect the two trails with a safe crossing.

The Headingley Grand Trunk Trail Association and Friends of the Harte Trail used $50,000 in federal grant money to commission a feasibility study on building a proper connection across the Perimeter.

“It’s unsafe and it’s only a matter of time before something happens,” said Phil Jenkinson with Friends of the Harte Trail.

The finishing touches are being done on the study, which is looking at two options -- going under the highway or over with a bridge.

Friends of the Harte Trail said preliminary cost estimates, which they don’t yet want to make public, show the over option is twice as much as the under, as the bridge has to be able to span six highway lanes because of a provincial vision to widen the Perimeter in the future.

“You have to invest in that now whereas going underneath or doing a culvert or a direct connection that’s not a bridge, you don’t need to account for that and spend all that extra (money),” Jenkinson said.

Jim would like to see a crossing and he is willing to see his tax dollars go toward the project.

“We have to, right? One way or the other, I mean we would continue going that way if we could,” he said.