© 2023, Christian Cassidy
Source: Global News Winnipeg
On Friday, there was a derailment of about a dozen rail cars partially above the McPhillips Street subway. Initially, it was thought the street could be closed for days and that there could be serious damage to the structure. Fortunately, that was not the case and it reopened the following day.
With attention being briefly focused on the subway, I thought this would be a good time to look back at its history. Opened in 1911, It serves a link between the CPR yards and its Weston shops, still one of the largest in North America. It has also been the lifeline of CPR traffic to and from Western Canada.
As Winnipeg's commercial and residential development in Winnipeg stretched further West in the early 1900s, it came into conflict with the level rail crossing at McPhillips Street. Once a lonely prairie road with a single track, the street was becoming a thoroughfare and the crossing had grown to five tracks connecting the sprawling CPR works yards to its massive Weston Shops.
The city and CPR announced in February 1909 that they had reached an agreement that would see the railway build a subway under the tracks and provide basic lighting and drainage. The city would be responsible for the surface of the approaches and roadway that ran beneath it.
CPR engineer Frank Lee and city engineer Henry Ruttan worked out the final details over the coming months and the final plan was approved by city council on March 22, 1910.
March 31, 1910, Winnipeg Free Press
Tenders for the construction of the subway were advertised in late March and John Gunn and Sons won the bid. It required them to excavate around 35,000 cubic yards of earth and then build thirteen concrete pedestals with steel girders over them to hold up the bed for the five tracks.
Paved, sloping approaches would extend about 400 feet in each direction.
The Winnipeg Tribune reported in late June that Gunn was "making good progress" on the excavation and that the project was expected to be completed by autumn.
Overhead of McPhillips Street Subway, 9147 and 2020
The project missed the deadline of an autumn opening. It appears that the structure was ready by the end of the year, but there was not enough time to lay the streetcar tracks and pave the approaches before winter.
Things got back underway in the spring of 1911 with the May 12 edition of the Winnipeg Free Press reporting that "The McPhillips subway will be open for traffic in the course of a few days. A large force is at work paving the roadway between the street car tracks." It also noted that the intersection of McPhillips and the tracks, which had been diverted to the east side of McPhillips Street during construction, was more dangerous than ever due to the large volume of train traffic.
For the amount of media attention the project received through its planning and early construction stages, there was no official opening for the subway or newspaper story announcing its first day in operation. This is likely in part because it was a CPR construction project "under the authority of the city", not the city itself. The CPR had so many projects going on in Winnipeg, don't mind across Western Canada, that the completion of a single urban subway would not have warranted much attention on their part.
It also appears that the opening may have been done fits and starts. Street travel through the subway likely started in late May once the paving around the subway tracks was done, the full paving of the approaches in both directions didn't begin until later in the summer which likely meant lane closures until the late autumn.
April 2, 1913, Winnipeg Tribune
A problem that has plagued the McPhillips Street subway is flooding and this started even before it opened.
The Winnipeg Free Press reported that at a March 1911 meeting of the city's board of control, "Controller McArthur sprung something in the nature of a surprise when he reported that the McPhillips Street subway under the CPR tracks which is nearing completion is completely blocked with from three to four feet of water on the floor of the subway..." This was because it had not yet been hooked up to the storm sewer system.
By the next meeting on April 7, it appears that the sewer connection had been made and the CPR also installed a pump as a back up measure which made the subway passable.
John Gunn, the contractor who built the structure, happened to be in the board room to speak to a different agenda item, was called on to speak to the matter. As reported by the Free Press, Gunn "Disturbed the equilibrium of the controllers somewhat when he delivered himself of the opinion that there will be trouble keeping the subway free from water until the present sewer is enlarged. He holds that it is already altogether inadequate for the demands on it."
Flooding in the subway in the spring or after a heavy rainfall became a long-standing sore point between the city and railway.
The matter came up at a public works committee meeting in December 1919
when a motion was made by one councillor to do whatever was necessary to make sure that the subway was kept free from spring flooding. It was pointed out by more senior members of the committee that "some time ago" a special committee took up the matter of drainage in the subway with the CPR but the company refused to do anything.
Flooded Subway, 1964 (Wpg Tribune Photo Collection, U of M Archives)
Fast forward to July 1964, after yet another bad year of flooding, Metro Winnipeg council announced that it would go in and fix the drainage issues itself then start legal action against the railway to recoup the costs. The situation was made all the more urgent by preliminary engineering studies that suggested that Arlington Street Bridge, the next closest crossing, may have to be closed permanently.
Alderman Leonard Claydon, chair of Winnipeg's public works committee, told the Free Press, "There's been a stain put on the reputation of the city when people try to make it look like the drainage is our responsibility. They make it look like we've been holding back from repairs. We're just not going to take this sort of nonsense."
Tenders for the repairs, which only came to around $30,000 were let in early 1966 and the repairs were made in the fall. The CPR agreed to pay part of the bill.
The repairs were a definite improvement but did not eliminate flooding in the subway which still happen from time to time to this day.
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