Biggest Waste of Taxpayer Money in Manitoba History

What is the biggest waste of money that has been spent by our provincial government? I was thinking about this today, and one thing kept coming to mind- the "Bridge to Nowhere" (aka Hwy #4) that was built in 1987. For those of you unfamiliar with this bridge, it was built north of Selkirk, connecting the Selkirk by-pass to Highway # 59.

Its funny because hardly anybody uses it. I suppose if you needed to get to Winnipeg Beach from Grand Beach quicker, you would use it. However if you were travelling around Selkirk or going to Lake Winnipeg, you would just cross at Lockport, or the bridge in the town. Of course, the NDP was in power at the time, and Howard Pawley was the Premier, so I guess it wasnt too much of a coincidince that this White Elephant bridge was built in his riding.

HurtinAlbertan wrote:What is the biggest waste of money that has been spent by our provincial government? I was thinking about this today, and one thing kept coming to mind- the "Bridge to Nowhere" (aka Hwy #4) that was built in 1987. For those of you unfamiliar with this bridge, it was built north of Selkirk, connecting the Selkirk by-pass to Highway # 59.

Its funny because hardly anybody uses it. I suppose if you needed to get to Winnipeg Beach from Grand Beach quicker, you would use it. However if you were travelling around Selkirk or going to Lake Winnipeg, you would just cross at Lockport, or the bridge in the town. Of course, the NDP was in power at the time, and Howard Pawley was the Premier, so I guess it wasnt too much of a coincidince that this White Elephant bridge was built in his riding.

Maybe he liked playing bridge...

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=winnipeg&om=1&ie=UTF8&ll=50.166591,-96.895981&spn=0.012205,0.027466&t=h&z=15
...by the year 2040, that's gonna be one heck of an intersection.
...or maybe not...

Same era Borowski Highways Minister builds a road from Big Whiteshell Lake to a lake called Horseshoe Lake builds 8 miles of it to open up cottages there and stops 1and half short of the lake . The road has since grown back into bush I forget what this cost but it was not cheap . Seems him and Pawley had a thing for roads and social housing failures .

actually a fair number of people use that bridge, I myself have used it very often having grown up in the area. The bridge right in town takes you through East Selkirk before you get to the highway, and you have to slow down the whole way, whereas the bridge to nowhere you can continue at 100k/h right from the highway all the way to the turnoff into selkirk. It can be a quicker way into or out of town depending which direction you are coming from.

AdamX wrote:actually a fair number of people use that bride...

Heh heh

Who owned the land that was expropriated to build the approaches?

AdamX wrote:actually a fair number of people use that bridge, I myself have used it very often having grown up in the area. The bridge right in town takes you through East Selkirk before you get to the highway, and you have to slow down the whole way, whereas the bridge to nowhere you can continue at 100k/h right from the highway all the way to the turnoff into selkirk. It can be a quicker way into or out of town depending which direction you are coming from.

Would it not only be quicker way of coming into Selkirk if one was travelling from the Northeast (Grand Beach, Pine Falls, Pinawa, etc.). I couldnt see it being faster than approaching Selkirk from Winnipeg via #44 through Lockport, since you have to drive at least 10-15 km past Selkirk on #59 to get to the turnoff of Hwy #4.