REGINA - The City of Regina is wrapping up a busy 2022 construction season which saw a number of major projects completed.
At a news conference at City Hall on Thursday, the city’s Executive Director of Citizen Services Kim Onrait reported the city is wrapping up an investment of $97.5 million in transportation, water, wastewater, and drainage projects across Regina.
Major projects include $16 million for the residential road renewal program to improve residential streets, $13.7 million for street infrastructure renewal of major roadways, and $40.7 million for water, wastewater and drainage systems.
Among the highlights Onrait pointed to included the following:
Improving 30 km of road surface, including major roadways and residential roads;
Over 8 km of sidewalks were replaced or repaired;
Completed work on wastewater, storm and drinking water pipes by either renewing or cleaning 20 km of underground pipe;
Traffic signal upgrades at four intersections;
Pedestrian crossing and traffic calming projects improved safety at 26 locations.
Several large projects were also completed and these include the Albert Street rehabilitation, the second and final phase of the McCarthy Boulevard Improvement project, Lewvan Drive paving and the new turning bay at the airport, and the Arcola Avenue sewer renewal project which will be finished early next week.
The third and final phase of the Winnipeg Street overpass project is 90 per cent complete. The overpass and road works are finished, said Onrait, but there will be some continued restrictions until the end of November while crews finish street lights, guard rails and traffic signals.
The third and final phase of the North Central upgrade is 95 per cent complete with some minimal paving and sidewalk work to be done in the spring.
While the 2022 construction season is complete, regular infrastructure maintenance to maintain the quality of their assets continues through the winter, said Onrait.
Onrait also reported great success with their new communications campaign this year.
“This year’s tone took a shift to a humourous approach which was well received by residents,” said Onrait. “We saw significant improvement in positive engagement compared to the previous years.”
This included signage with messages such as “Construction is Ruff - But smoother roads are coming soon,” “Putting the Car Back in McCarthy,” and “Improved Drainage. That’s Grate!”
A large billboard visible along Ring Road near the Winnipeg Street Overpass project had featured a gold-coloured football helmet with the line “At Least You’re Not in Winnipeg. Winnipeg St. Overpass will be complete this season.”
While the City was able to get most of the projects done, a few were deferred for a couple of reasons. “Supplier shortages for some of the materials forced us to push a few projects to 2023, and dealing with inflation we pulled a few projects back - not many, we did pull a few back due to escalating costs on those projects, so those will be retendered for 2023.”
Director of Water, Waste and Environment Kurtis Doney reported one of the projects deferred was the North East drainage project. “That project came in over budget. We’ll look to redesign and retender in 2023.”
There had been an early snowfall in October, and that did delay some of the paving on the North Central drainage project. Doney said that will be completed in 2023.
Onrait was of the opinion that based on response from the community, the construction season went better than previous years due to the change in the communications and the timing of the projects.
“We tried to spread the construction projects out throughout the city. We try not compounding numerous projects in one specific area, so trying to keep the distribution of projects a little more broadly planned and that has helped definitely over the last few years in how traffic is managed, and commute times for people coming and going to work.”
He pointed to the Arcola Ave. East pipe relining project as a prime example, as there has been minimal disruption while that has gone on.
The City of Regina thanked residents for their understanding and patience during the short construction season, and reminded people to slow down and drive safe in construction zones. City employees were also thanked for their work in developing and achieving the 2022 construction.
