The Yorkton West Truck Route was officially opened Thursday.
The opening marks the completion of Phase II of the $14 million project now named Highway 52A.
Yorkton MLA Greg Ottenbreit, who spoke on behalf of Highways and Infrastructure Minister Don McMorris, said the route will better serve truck traffic, in particular those traveling to LDM Foods and Richardson Oilseeds, the two canola crush facilities along Highway 16.
"It's important keeping that traffic flowing smoothly," he said.
In serving those trucks the route will also reduce heavy traffic moving through the city, he said.
"It's making Yorkton a safer place," he said.
Yorkton Deputy Mayor Richard Okrainec said the project is good for the city.
"It will help out the big industries," he said. " This is going to be really good for us."
Barclay Westerhaug, Reeve of the Rural Municipality of Orkney agreed the project will be good for the areas.
"This will help our ratepayers a lot," he said.
Not every ratepayer was happy with the new route. Boyd and Rhonda Bailey attended the opening, and were not happy with the new highway.
The couple circulated a letter to media they had sent to Ottenbreit.
"Highway speed is still 100 km up to this truck route - this causes all sorts of trouble - including trucks that are turning onto Highway #52 are slow at turning and the oncoming traffic is traveling at 100 km or faster when they reach this corner," noted the letter.
"They use their "Jake" brakes which are very loud! This is right outside of my house and this happens at all hours of the day and night."
Rhonda Bailey said they want to see better signage to let truckers know where the route is, and also reduced speed limits leading from the city to the new route.
A Department of Highway official went with the Bailey's following the opening for a tour of the highway area to see what might be done to address their concerns.
Darryl Flunder, project manager with LDM Foods said the route is certainly positive for the crush business. He said it will "help traffic flowing through the Yorkton area."
Darrell Sobkow, AVPW of operations said "transportation and logistics is key to our success," adding the route provides safe, efficient, reliable transportation system to and from their facility.
Phase II of the project saw a 6.0 kilometre (km) long bypass built to connect Highway 16 and Grain Millers Drive to Highway 52. Turning lanes were also built. Construction of Phase II began in October 2010.
The $8.6 million Phase I portion of the project opened in the fall of 2010, after construction began in 2009. Construction work included: moving a 5.3 km long segment of Highway 16 about 400 metres south; re-aligning Highway 16's access to Grain Millers Drive; and re-aligning a portion of Grain Millers Drive.
Final cleanup work in the ditches is expected to be finished during the 2012 construction season, depending on weather.
