There is some good news for the various groups hoping to see Highways 39 and 6 from Estevan to Regina twinned.
While speaking to the media today in Estevan, Premier Brad Wall said that although he did not have a definitive announcement, the twinning of the busy highway will soon become a much higher priority for the government.
Wall said SGI recently presented some five and 10 year projections of traffic levels on the highway and those figures have prompted the government to take a longer look at twinning.
"(The projections) just show that the very compelling need for twinning for 39 and 6 means that we must place a much higher priority on it as a government and we are going to do that," Wall said. "I am going to be asking the highways minister and the energy and the economy ministers and the SGI minister to sit down and work together on how we can move up the project, how we can move towards improving safety; how, frankly, we can move towards twinning on these highways in a much more timely way."
Wall was in Estevan today for a meeting with Estevan city council and senior City staff members. He also toured the Carbon Capture and Sequestration project at the Boundary Dam Power Station with North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp.
He said while driving to Estevan today he experienced the traffic on Highways 39 and 6 firsthand. Wall added that Estevan MLA Doreen Eagles and Weyburn-Big Muddy MLA Dustin Duncan have also lobbied on behalf of twinning.
"Doreen is our caucus chair and I sit beside her, literally, every day of session which gives her a chance to basically make the case. She would tell us how many trucks she had passed going home or coming here."
Wall said there are other highways in the province the government must consider but added the nature of the traffic in the southeast is a major factor in making twinning a priority.
"What we have here is a lot of truck traffic; it's agriculture, it's oil, it's industrial. That has to inform what government is going to do. The Highway 11 twinning project is wrapping up and we are looking at what's next and I just want to reiterate that 39 has to be a higher priority and will be."
Wall said all options are still on the table but the government would be looking more at twinning than passing lanes. He added that if twinning were to take place, it would most likely be from Estevan to Regina. The government has previously announced that twinning Highway 39 from Estevan to Bienfait is in the pre-planning stages.
The premier said the province would be approaching the federal government about kicking in some funds for what is certain to be an expensive project.
For more on this story please see the Sept. 4 edition of the Estevan Mercury.
