The worst sections of one of the province's busiest highways are about to get some much-needed attention — but other highway projects may have to move to the back-burner.

Later this month, $21 million in reconstruction will begin on the southbound lanes of Highway 75 between Winnipeg and Ste. Agathe, Manitoba Transportation Minister Ron Lemieux announced Friday.

During the first phase of construction, crews will rebuild the highway's shoulder, remove the road's asphalt and concrete, install a new gravel base and construct a new concrete roadbed on a 7.7-kilometre stretch from Winnipeg to St. Adolphe. The work should be finished this fall.

The second phase of the work will begin in 2007 on an 11-kilometre stretch of southbound lanes from St. Adolphe to Ste. Agathe.

A second contract for the reconstruction of portions of the northbound lanes from Emerson to Letellier will be advertised later this month, provincial officials said.

Other projects will be reviewed

Lemieux said the work on the highway will be done in spite of huge increases in the cost of materials, such as asphalt. However, many other projects might not receive the same treatment.

"Projects that we've committed to … and tendered, we're going to live up to those commitments. It's the ones that have not been tendered yet and the ones that we have not announced that we're going to have to review," Lemieux said.

"It's not something that I want to do, obviously, but when you have increases like that coming back — fluctuating anywhere between 30 and 70 per cent increase on what you thought you would reasonably get based on last year and previous years — it's something that we're going to have to deal with."

Lemieux wouldn't say which projects might be in jeopardy. He did say the renewal of Highway 75, the twinning of Highway 59 south of Ile des Chênes, southeast of Winnipeg, and the twinning of the Trans-Canada Highway to the Saskatchewan border will proceed as promised.

Highway 75 — the province's main route from Winnipeg to the United States — was closed for two weeks earlier this year due to high water on the Red River, which submerged some sections of the road. Frequent freezing and thawing during the warm weather this past winter has also left the road severely cracked and buckled in some areas.

The provincial government is spending a total of $257 million on highway upgrades and repairs across Manitoba this year.