For the last 10 days, my family tooled about a good chunk of Alberta and Saskatchewan as part of a spring holiday. Around 3,200 kilometres later, much of it covering territory I knew but had not covered in four to eight years, I can say this: there's a lot of building going on, especially when it comes to roads.
In Calgary, we visited friends on the extreme opposite sides of the city, yet thanks to the recently opened Stoney Trail ring road, we were able to get from one house to the other in about 40 minutes. Admittedly, it was a Sunday, but as I pointed out to my kids, we drove around about one million people in the process. I did wonder, however, why it wasn't built entirely as a three-lane-per-side freeway.
On the east side of Edmonton I saw the largest highway construction project I had ever seen on Yellowhead Highway on the east side, north of Refinery Row. Those were the biggest interchanges I've seen on the prairies.
These bode well for the projects Saskatchewan is now taking on, the new Regina bypass, twinning of Highway 6/39 from Estevan to Regina, and the Estevan bypass, which is now finally under construction after having been initially announced in 2008.
Bypasses and ring roads make a huge difference once they are in place. Winnipeg has benefited immensely from its perimeter. Friends in Edmonton always seem to mention the Anthony Henday Drive, the city's ring road, whenever they talk about getting from points A to B. Their instructions usually come in the form of forget all other routes and take the Henday. It looks like the major construction works I saw on the east side of Edmonton are the final phases of the Henday.
The government of Saskatchewan just secured $200 million in federal funding for Regina's planned bypass. That's nothing to sneeze at, but it's still just a fraction of the total cost. Hard numbers have not been given, but government press release notes, "if the project was done using the traditional process, instead of a P3, it would cost an estimated $1.2 billion."
One might wonder if the Regina bypass is truly big enough, in that perhaps it should include White City/Emerald Park. It does give Regina room to grow. Satellite pictures show the Henday, for instance, is already almost filled up. Stoney Trail didn't leave much room for growth within its circle either, but at least there is some. A bypass proposed for Saskatoon has already been pushed further out, and for good reason. Winnipeg's perimeter is probably the best example we've seen of what's really going on out there and leaving room for decades of growth.
The Regina bypass is expected to be completed within four years of initial construction. That's a pretty tall order, but it does take advantage of one major point: because most of it is entirely new roadway and right of way, they can do it without the hassles of accommodating existing traffic except at some of the interchanges. That will make a big difference. Instead of a piecemeal, decades-long affair like the Henday, this would be one fell swoop.
Curiously, the four-year timeframe would also put the project's completion close to the next 2019 provincial election. Imagine that?
It's also ambitious, when one thinks of how long it took to twin Highway 16 from Saskatoon to Lloydminster. I remember each 10 kilometre phase at a time. It took forever.
The biggest benefit will be to the people of Saskatchewan, and more specifically, Regina. With much of the truck traffic rerouted around the city and off Ring Road (the original ring road), movement within the city should greatly improve. Victoria Avenue East should be much more manageable.
Combine that with twinning from Estevan to Regina, and a completed Estevan bypass, and getting around southern Saskatchewan will be a lot easier.
- Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at [email protected]
