Portage and Main reopens to pedestrians, marking 'historic moment' for Winnipeg

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.