The shrouds were removed from the brand new walk signals at the intersection of Portage and Main on Friday morning and the remaining construction barricades hauled away, as 46 years of prohibited pedestrian crossings came to an end at Winnipeg’s famous corner.
“This is very, very special today. Today marks a historic moment,” said Mayor Scott Gillingham, as a pedestrian walk light in the background turned on for one of the first times around 10:30 a.m. and a stream of people began crossing Main Street.
“This intersection is important. It has been central to Winnipeg’s history. It will remain vital to our community’s future.”
It’s been a long road to get to this point.
Portage and Main was closed in February 1979 to pedestrians, who were redirected below ground through tunnels and a roundabout that linked to a subterranean shopping mall and access points at the four corners of the intersection. At street level, concrete ramparts were constructed to block people from the corners.
There have been public opinion polls conducted since at least 1997 to gauge Winnipegger’s thoughts on removing the barricades, which have always resulted in two-thirds being opposed.
But council voted last year to reopen the intersection, after learning the bill to fix infrastructure issues, particularly a membrane under the road that weatherproofs the underground concourse, would be $73 million and create up to five years of traffic delays.
Construction on the reopening took approximately eight months, and is expected to come in under the budget of $21.27 million, the city said in a Friday news release.
“It’s fantastic. It’s about time. It’s about damn time,” Gabriel Langlois — better known as Dancing Gabe, a fervent city booster — said about the reopening.
Langlois showed up four hours before the intersection officially reopened, raising a sign with the words “Make Portage and Main great again” surrounded by logos for all the city’s professional sports teams and several Canadian flag stickers.
“Oh, I love it. It’s great,” said Nolan Mizeracki, who was crossing Portage Avenue E. around 8 a.m., well before the official opening.
“I’ve been doing this for a week now, ever since they had the [crosswalk lines] painting all ready to go,” he said. But with the actual walk signals still covered and no countdown visible, Mizeracki was guessing at how much time he had.
Once the shrouds were removed, the time of about 30 seconds was clear.
Until he started crossing on Monday, Mizeracki had been using the underground, “but it was so awful after work, around 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. Sometimes you just don’t feel safe,” he said.
Dennis Olinyk cycled from the East Kildonan neighbourhood, thinking the intersection would be open first thing in the morning, but was more than three hours early. Crews were still sprucing up the corners, washing windows and sweeping gravel when he arrived.
Despite watching several people go around the few remaining barricades, Olinyk refused to cross until it was officially allowed, but he planned to then take it all in.
“I figured I’d go through every corner,” he said.
‘Stupidest thing ever’
David Kron, executive director of the Cerebral Palsy Association of Manitoba, said a lot of people living with mobility issues woke up happy on Friday. Using the underground concourse was not only cumbersome, but it was sometimes entirely inaccessible, he said.
“Just where we are today, there’s a set of stairs to come up to this little plaza. So if I was using my wheelchair today, I couldn’t get here,” he said in an interview at the southeast corner of the intersection.
There are some accessibility lifts, but they have often been out of service. Being able to cross the street “is a nice, direct path,” Krone said.
“I’ll be able to work and live in this area a lot better. It’s now for all Winnipeggers.”
Not everyone was pleased with the changes, though.
“It’s the stupidest thing ever,” said Trevor Kopp, who was behind the wheel of a dump truck at the Portage Avenue E. traffic light.
Kopp argued pedestrian crossing will slow traffic too much, echoing concerns raised by others in polls and a 2018 plebiscite on reopening.
“Now you gotta wait for all the people to go back and forth, back and forth,” he said.
But when asked if he really thinks it’ll make that much of a difference, he responded, “I don’t know — maybe not. Guess we’ll see.”
Gillingham dismissed criticisms the change will slow traffic or be too dangerous for pedestrians.
“I don’t say this tritely: Winnipeggers cross thousands of intersections every day. And they cross bigger intersections with more traffic than we have here at Portage and Main, so we can do this.”
As part of the redesign, some lanes of traffic have been altered.
Vehicles can no longer turn right from Main Street onto Portage Avenue E., while those on eastbound Portage now have three left-turn lanes onto northbound Main, and only one lane to go straight across.
Sabrina Janke and Alex Judge, hosts of the One Great History podcast and authors of the upcoming book, Portage and Main: How an Iconic Intersection Shaped Winnipeg’s History, Politics, and Urban Life, were also among those celebrating the transformation of what has been nicknamed the crossroads of the country, for its proximity to the longitudinal centre of Canada.
“It’s really exciting to see it actually happen,” said Janke, who was working near the intersection in 2018 when the reopening plebiscite resulted in a 65 per cent “no” vote.
“I remember standing at 201 Portage and looking at the Bank of Montreal [at that time kitty-corner from 201] and being like, ‘It would be nice if I could just walk across to that.'”
There’s something about Portage and Main that’s magnetic to Winnipeggers, said Judge, who surmises it’s because the city doesn’t have a public square, like in many other major centres.
Instead, Portage and Main has become where Winnipeggers have gathered for various reasons, whether in celebration or protest.
“Portage and Main, just sort of being at the centre, being somewhere that you can be seen, I think has just become that public square by default,” Judge said.
In spite of Friday’s hoopla and grand statements, though, a simple reopening is not going to be a panacea for all of the downtown’s ills, Janke said.
“But I think it is a step forward in planning a downtown that’s more for the people that live and work here,” she said. “Planning for a space that people should exist in and be seen in is really important.”
While Friday’s focus was above ground, some also said it’s important to remember that Winnipeg Square, the subterranean commercial mall connected to the tunnels, is still open.
“We’re very excited about Portage and Main opening up,” said Haley Yurman with Empty Cup Collective, a locally owned coffee company that has a location in the underground.
“We’re definitely excited about encouraging the growth of downtown, but we’re also wanting to remind people that the businesses underground are still there [and] want their support as well.”
There are no plans for the mall to close as long as the circus — the roundabout that connects the tunnels like a wheel hub — remains open.
Coun. Jeff Browaty, who chairs city council’s finance and economic development committee, told CBC earlier this year the city will keep it open and maintained for now, given there’s no immediate threat of it collapsing nor a need to close it immediately due to its deterioration.
It’s been decades since people could cross Winnipeg’s famed Portage and Main intersection above ground. But as of Friday morning, it’s officially open again to pedestrians. The corner has been the topic of fierce debate for years, but Winnipeg’s mayor says its reopening is a step toward revitalizing the city’s downtown.
