There’s no denying that the provincial government had to balance out the budget in a difficult year. While not everyone is satisfied, it seems they’ve done the best they can without sacrificing anything essential or raising taxes. Even better, they’ve announced plans to invest $6.8 million in passing lanes for Highway 5. That’s a great start, but anyone who lives here full-time and traverses that highway on even a semi-regular basis knows that those passing lanes can’t stay that way.
The passing lanes alone are going to take a few years to complete. In the meantime, work has already begun on a mine in Jansen which is expected to bring in hundreds more people. There will be more people driving along that stretch of highway trying to get to and from Saskatoon (or wherever), plus a bunch of new people who will be commuting back and forth between the mine and whatever town or city they’ll be living in.
Let’s also not forget to take into consideration the fact that the weight of traffic will be pounding down on that pavement too. With grain elevators overflowing, trains not meeting grain quotas, and the surplus of oil flooding the market, we’re going to see – if we haven’t already – an increase in trucks hauling grain and/or oil back and forth. If you factor that into a narrow stretch of highway with no shoulders, you get problems such as longer lineups, more potholes that have to be avoided or else say goodbye to your axles, and nowhere to go but right into them or the ditch on the side. In the winter, at night, or during foggy times, it’s extremely dangerous for anyone that’s forced to pull over. A motorist would have to sit in a large part of the lane hoping that the driver coming up behind sees them in time to hit the breaks. If he or she doesn’t, it’s a deadly accident waiting to happen.
We can compound the problem further if we also think about the unquantifiable factors such as the drivers themselves. People are impatient. If someone is driving even 110 kilometres on that 100-kilometre road, you’ll inevitably get tailgaters and impatient people. They’re always looking for an opportunity to pass, even if that means taking a chance passing someone while going uphill and not knowing if someone else is coming up on the other side. They’ll even take those chances trying to bypass the big semi-trucks. I’m sure I don’t need to explain why that’s even more dangerous.
The point I’m driving at is that passing lanes aren’t going to cut it. They might withstand the traffic onslaught for the next two, possibly three years, but it’s definitely going to be showing the strain by then. Once that mine opens, the situation is just going to get worse.
Don’t get me wrong. I understand that the government is working on a tight budget and they’re trying to please everyone. I understand that the current situation doesn’t call for twinning Highway 5 at the present time. However, I’m also recognizing that a few years down the line, that situation is going to drastically change. They’ll hardly finish this project before realizing that they’ll need to start twinning right away, which would make passing lanes redundant.
The government needs to recognize sooner rather than later that that stretch of highway isn’t just a traffic issue. It’s a hazard. It’s dangerous for the people who live here and commute on that road. It’s much more dangerous for people passing through who don’t know what that road is like, have no streetlights to guide them, and don’t know where that road can get tricky. They won’t even be aware that a portion of that highway is prone to flooding. More than a handful of people have already died in the last year alone and they were familiar with the highway. It’s dangerous regardless of who you are, what vehicle you drive, or how long you’ve lived here.
That highway is a vital connection between the smaller rural communities and the urban city of Saskatoon. It’s high time it gets the attention it deserves before someone else dies.
