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![\"RUTH](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4345487_web1_250708-Portage-Main-crossing-2-.jpg\")
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RUTH BONNEVILLE \/ FREE PRESS FILES<\/p>\n
Saturday marks the one-year anniversary of the intersection\u2019s reopening to foot traffic.<\/p>\n
Saturday marks the one-year anniversary of the intersection\u2019s reopening to foot traffic. Portage and Main had been closed to pedestrians since 1979 as part of a commercial development deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, it\u2019s just an intersection, but it\u2019s an iconic intersection. It really speaks to the heart of the city,\u201d Gillingham said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo see people be able to walk across that intersection \u2014 use it as pedestrians like they use thousands of other intersections in Winnipeg \u2014 I think is an important statement about the future of our city. We\u2019re building, we\u2019re progressing and we\u2019re going to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Council voted to get rid of the concrete barricades and redesign the intersection because it was a less costly option, after a staff report in 2024 said it would cost $73 million and cause up to five years of traffic disruption to dig up the road and replace the waterproof membrane that protects the concourse. The work would have to be repeated decades later.<\/p>\n
City staff are expected to submit a report about the future of the concourse to council in January 2027. A consultant previously concluded it would cost about $11 million to fully decommission the concourse.<\/p>\n
Gillingham said staff are consulting property owners, and looking into whether there are options to address the problem of water getting into the concourse.<\/p>\n
He said some of the membrane that was problematic was replaced when the intersection was redesigned for its June 2025 reopening. He did not know how much of the membrane was replaced.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt may be that now the issue is not as large as it once was, but that\u2019s what staff are looking at,\u201d Gillingham said.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n
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The Building Owners and Managers Association of Manitoba, which represents some buildings linked to the concourse, has advocated for the concourse to stay open.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would certainly appear that the vast majority of pedestrian crossings at Portage and Main \u2014 particularly during the business day \u2014 are still taking place at concourse level,\u201d executive director Tom Thiessen wrote in an email to the Free Press.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe underground concourse benefits hundreds of thousands of downtown visitors, employees, and residents every year. Our expectation is that the city commits to repairing and maintaining this critical piece of downtown infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 With files from Joyanne Pursaga<\/p>\n
chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n
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Chris Kitching Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Chris produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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