Worst Manitoba road runs through Winnipeg

A public voting campaign by CAA to find the worst road in Manitoba has ended with Winnipeg's St. James Street taking the crown.

A total of 3,454 votes were cast over the course of the four-week campaign. There were 484 roads that received votes, helpingraise awareness of the terrible condition of some of the roads in this province, CAA said in a statement released Wednesday with the results.

"Votes are still being tallied but St. James Street finished in first place overall, receiving 455 votes," stated the news release.

Those who voted for St. James provided comments like,"its the worst Ive ever driven on" and "a major overhaul is long overdue."

The number of votes for St. James shows the frustration that residents feel when they drive along that particularly rough road, CAA said.

The road to Riding Mountain National Park also made the list asone of the worst, said CAA Manitoba spokeswoman Liz Peters, whodrove out to Highway 10 to take a look herself.

"Istopped on the side of the road and picked up a piece of asphalt that had to be 15 to 20 pounds and they were all over the place," she said.

"So it's definitely a very big problem out there with the condition of the road."

CAA intends toanalyze the data on a road-by-road basis before presenting the full list to government and then making the entire report and the rest of the top 10 list public.

"Sometimes small segments of a single road were highlighted by voters. But for the most part, when a road is in bad condition or it is highly congested, its not often isolated to a small section of the road. Its a problem for many kilometres in a row," saidPeters.

"Before sharing the final report, we need to look at those roads and ensure our tabulations give a clear and accurate accounting of what people told us."

The final report, segmented by road and community, is expected to be made public early next week.