Provincial Trunk Highway 16 (PTH 16) is a provincial highway in the

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

. It is the Manitoba section of the

Yellowhead Highway The Yellowhead Highway (french: Route Yellowhead) is a major interprovincial highway in Western Canada that runs from Winnipeg to Graham Island off the coast of British Columbia via Saskatoon and Edmonton. It stretches across the four western ...

, and also the

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway ( French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the Atlantic Ocean o ...

Yellowhead section. The main purpose of this

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-access ...

is to connect

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

with other

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

cities such as

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

and

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

. The highway runs from Bloom at an intersection with the

and Provincial Road 305 west of

Portage la Prairie Portage la Prairie () is a small city in the Central Plains Region of Manitoba, Canada. As of 2016, the population was 13,304 and the land area of the city was . Portage la Prairie is approximately west of Winnipeg, along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

to the

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

boundary west of Russell, where it continues as Saskatchewan Highway 16. The

is two lanes through

, with two small divided sections at the north and south junctions with PTH 10 around Minnedosa, which it runs in concurrence with just west of the town. PTH 16 is also twinned as it passes through Russell in concurrence with PTH 83, with northbound PTH 83 leaving/entering the concurrence at the western end of this section. Twinning and upgrading to expressway status is being planned in the future.

Alternate routes

*Minnedosa - Highway 16A

History

The route was known as '' PTH 4'' until 1977, when it was renumbered to allow the entire length of the Yellowhead Highway to retain the number ''16'' designation across all four provinces of western Canada. Between 1966 and 1979, PTH 16 was the designation of the route connecting Fisher Branch to PTH 7 near

Fraserwood Armstrong is a rural municipality in the province of Manitoba in Western Canada. It lies in the southern area of the Interlake and was named after James William Armstrong, a Manitoba politician. History The surrounding area was settled by immig ...

. This route became part of PR 231 and PR 228 in 1977. (This section of PR 228 would be transferred to PTH 17 in 1983). The highway has had some reconfigurations in its time. When the highway first appeared on the 1928 Manitoba Highway Map, the highway's eastern terminus with PTH 1 was located in Portage la Prairie. From Portage la Prairie, the road traveled north following the current PR 240 to Mile 71N (formerly PR 249). The highway would then turn west and rejoin its current configuration just south of Macdonald. The junction was moved to its current location in 1950, and the old section was designated as ''PTH 4A'' between 1953 and 1965. In the Minnedosa area, the section of highway from PTH 16A and PR 262 to Franklin Road (formerly PR 466 north) was constructed and opened to traffic in 1948. Prior to this, the highway turned north for two kilometres and then west past the hamlet of Franklin to Minnedosa, meeting PTH 10 south at the town limits. It then shared the highway to a point three kilometres north of its current junction with PTH 10 north at what is now the turnoff to the Ski Valley Recreation Area. PTH 4 would then turn west and rejoin the current configuration just east of Basswood. The current section of PTH 16 between its current northbound/westbound junction with PTH 10 and Basswood was constructed and opened to traffic in 1953. After these reconfigurations, PTH 4 met southbound PTH 10 two kilometres south of Minnedosa and then shared the highway through the town along what is now PTH 16A to its current northbound/westbound junction. The highway was extended two kilometres farther west in 1971 to its current junction with southbound PTH 10 with the construction of the Minnedosa bypass. The current section between Shoal Lake and the southbound junction of PTH 83 was constructed and opened to traffic in 1958. Prior to this, PTH 4 would meet PTH 21 in Shoal Lake (northbound PTH 21 ended at this point). The highway would continue west along what is now PTH 42 to meet PTH 83 south at Birtle. The two highways would then run in concurrence from Birtle to the current junction seven kilometres east of Foxwarren, where it would then rejoin its current configuration. Prior to 1990, PTH 16 used to be cosigned with PTH 1 between its junction west of Portage La Prairie and Winnipeg; however, when the Yellowhead Highway was incorporated as part of the Trans-Canada Highway, the PTH 16 designation was dropped in favour of the current unnumbered designation.

Major intersections

References

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Terminus {{Trans-Canada 016 Manitoba 016 Yellowhead Highway