After initially looking at a quickie repair that would have gotten them through a couple of years, the City of Estevan's rebuild plan for Highway 47 has grown to a more long-term solution.
Shortly after presiding over a meeting in which council raised taxes by roughly 10 per cent, Mayor Roy Ludwig informed the media that plans to rebuild sections of the rapidly degrading road had expanded.
In an interview Monday, city manager Jim Puffalt said the decision was made to undertake a more extensive job after consultations with the Ministry of Highways. It was announced earlier this spring that the City and ministry had agreed upon a cost-sharing agreement for the project which is now expected to cost in the $4 million range. The original "shave and pave" was estimated at $1.5 million.
"Neither our people nor highways were overly fond of doing something short term that was going to cost that much money," said Puffalt. "They found a more creative solution that would give us a more long-term fix.
"When it became so bad in February and March, we went to Highways and said 'listen, we have to do something with that road. We can't wait until you get some money in the budget; we have to do something now so we need some funding. We started at a shave and pave, but we wanted to do something that was going to give some length of service so that is where the idea of the shave and pave went away to a more permanent fix as we are talking about now."
Puffalt added the current plan calls for milling out the asphalt and fixing any soft spots in the road base.
"It's a different way of rebuilding it. There is actually a decent base there so they are going to take advantage of that," he said. "It should hold for an extended length of time."
One of the complicating factors in the City's plans was a concern about the lifespan of the waterlines and storm sewer lines that run under Souris Avenue North. It's been well documented those lines will need to be replaced before long and because of that, the City was hesitant to rebuild the road and then have to dig it up in a few years to repair them.
Puffalt said that concern also forced the City to find a creative solution.
On the east side (of the road) the watermains are in the boulevard so we can replace that when necessary and not have to dig up the road and on the west side we have a large boulevard area that we will be able to replace when we need to," Puffalt said.
"The idea is rather than go in now and replace it, we will bring the stubs out into the boulevard area and abandon the lines. It will be a big cost savings."
The City also has plans to improve the curbs and gutters in the area to increase water flow.
"We want to replace all the catch basins, they are actually old technology. There is new technology that we actually installed on Fourth Street. It does provide more drainage in the catch basin itself and then it drops into the storm system. There is a bigger holding tank under the street."
It's estimated that this job will take around six weeks to finish. Puffalt said the plan is to work on one side of the road before moving over to the other.
"It's a little bit narrow, but with what is basically a divided road there we will be able to do one side and then do the other," he said. "There will be single lanes of traffic."
The tender for the work is expected to go to contractors in the next few days and will have a short time frame. Until the tenders come back in, Puffalt said he cannot give a definite start date.
Along with the Highway 47 rebuild - which includes Souris Avenue North, 13th Avenue from Fourth Street to King Street and Sixth Street from 13th Avenue to Souris Avenue - the City also has plans to repave King Street from the 13th Avenue intersection to Cundall Drive.
