ESTEVAN — The City of Estevan could be facing added operating and capital costs associated with portions of highways that fall within city limits.
In a correspondence to Estevan city council, Norm Mack, the manager for the city’s public works’ roads and drainage division, said the city has had discussions with the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure regarding the Urban Highway Connector Program.
“The Ministry of Highways states that the City of Estevan boundary limits will be extended beyond what the city is currently maintaining,” Mack wrote.
The ministry has sent a contract to the city and a map of the highway connectors that would become the city’s responsibility. The maintenance of these connector highways would be signage, grass mowing, illumination, hot patching, crack filling, street sweeping, and snow and ice removal.
Mack noted the Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways has offered its services to contract some of the work for the city on the Highway 47 South and Highway 18 connectors for an annual fee of $15,929.
The east city entrance will see the city’s maintenance requirement moved from Kensington Avenue to Sawyer Road. Mack said the ministry would pay the city $20,887 per year to look after the maintenance on this stretch of connector highway. The stretch includes the east overpass.
Snow removal was frequently cited as a concern during the meeting.
“We just have graders in our fleet,” said Mack. “We don’t have a highway plow truck. The speed limit in that area is … 50 kilometres [per hour before the overpass] and after the overpass it goes to 80. I just feel that our fleet doesn’t have equipment that is suited for highway snow removal.”
Mayor Roy Ludwig said this is an example of more offloading by the province to the city. To do the proper job, since there isn’t an alternative, the city will have to look at purchasing extra equipment.
The west side of the city will see the new boundary at Sister Roddy Road. Currently the city’s responsibility ends at 16th Avenue.
“The City of Estevan will now have to move a considerable amount of snow and conduct pavement maintenance from l6th Ave. through the valley and underpass to Sister Roddy Road,” Mack said. “There is no compensation from the ministry on the west side. Saskatchewan highways states this is our stretch of highway to look after.”
Ludwig noted the highway in the valley has been shifting for a number of years and that will continue. The city does not want to absolve the ministry of looking after it.
The overpass is the issue on the east side.
“I hope this isn’t their intention, slowly but surely, to say that okay, now that overpass, you’ve been looking after it, so now that’s your baby, you’re going to have to pay for it,” said Ludwig.
The overpass underwent a considerable refurbishment in 2008.
The north boundary for Highway 47 is now the RM Road or otherwise known as the Bienfait Grid. All maintenance and snow removal will be taken care by the City of Estevan according to this proposed contract. There is no compensation for this stretch of highway from the ministry, Mack said.
Mack pointed out the City of Estevan is currently not equipped with machinery or manpower to maintain highways.
“Our snow removal fleet is equipped with two graders to move the snow on our city streets,” he said. “If this agreement is accepted, the roads and drainage dept. would possibly like to study the possibility of obtaining a snow plow truck equipped with a sand spreader similar to what the Department of Highways uses.
“This truck could not only be used on the highway connectors but also on streets located on the perimeter of the city. Clearing off highways with slow moving graders is not an ideal situation.
“Although the footprint of the added proposed highway connectors to the City of Estevan may not look large, it will take extra man hours and resources to fulfill all the services from snow removal to pavement maintenance.
City manager Jeff Ward pointed out this is an operations and maintenance agreement. The other is the Urban Highways Connector Program framework deal, which includes the rehab and percentage costs.
Ward said during negotiations, it was stressed that if the city were to agree on snow removal, that it would have nothing to do with the underpass or overpass capital costs.
Councillor Lindsay Clark suggested the city submit a counteroffer because the province is downloading costs and there will be a much higher expense for the city. Councillor Shelly Veroba, meanwhile, was critical of the government’s move, saying it was “poor taste” by the government.
Ludwig suggested the province help with cost of purchasing additional snow removal equipment.
Mack stressed to council that if the city doesn’t agree to this pact, the municipality won’t have an agreement with the ministry and highways crews won’t enter city boundaries.
Ward also noted that ever since the truck bypass north of the city was completed in the fall of 2015, the provincial government’s interest changed, but they continued to look after highways close to Estevan’s city limits because it was still considered the urban highway connector.
“They really have no obligation to come within city limits at any point now that the actual highway is the bypass. We can try to negotiate and get some of those costs, but just knowing that was told to us when we asked for similar type items,” said Ward.
Council ultimately tabled the document so the city would have time to meet with the RM of Estevan to find out if they are going through a similar situation with the province, since there are segments of highway that run through the RM from city limits to the truck bypass.
