Estevan– Estevan Mayor Roy Ludwig is looking forward to the upcoming opening of the new truck bypass that will divert traffic around the Energy City.
The bypass will have a substantial impact on oilfield traffic, from moving drilling rigs around the city to local companies hauling pipe.
The new bypass is expected to open sometime in November.
“We’re very happy,” Ludwig said about the project.
“We feel it’s important. It will allow a lot of heavy traffic to go around the city.”
For many years, trucks passing through the centre of Estevan would be diverted two blocks north, off the main drag of Fourth Street to Sixth Street for three blocks before returning to the main thoroughfare. This internal bypass of the downtown has been hard on the street surface, requiring numerous “shave and pave” resurfacings over the years.
In anticipation of the opening of the new bypass around the entire community, the city resurfaced the eastern half of the downtown bypass. Ludwig noted they city had hoped the truck bypass would have opened prior to the resurfacing downtown, but delays with the truck bypass prevented that.
A bypass around Estevan had been talked about for many years. It was finally announced in the April 2008 provincial budget, the same day a similar bypass for Yorkton was also announced. But while Yorkton’s was completed several years ago, Estevan’s took seven-and-a-half years.
The third of three phases of Yorkton’s bypass, its southwest corner, was never completed, causing trucks to take a zig-zag route around the community. Landowner resistance there was an issue, and it turned out to be an issue with Estevan’s, too.
Ludwig noted, “Most of the traffic that doesn’t have to stop for food or to drop off goods will go around.”
He noted interchanges will be coming at some point down the road, planned for the eastern, western ends of the bypass as well as the intersection with Highway 47, north of the city. Ludwig acknowledged concerns have been raised about the safety of those intersections.
Traffic signals at those intersections have been discussed many times, but Ludwig explained the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure would not have it. Ludwig noted the intention is to have traffic flow around the city and not having to stop.
“The whole idea was to have free flow of traffic,” he noted.
“The Ministry feels it will be safe.”
The Estevan truck bypass is the first of several highways projects that will impact transportation in the heart of oil country. The next is the planned twinning of Highway 39 from Bienfait to Estevan. Following that, Highway 39 and Highway 6 from North Portal to Regina is supposed to be twinned, with open houses having been held over the past year discussing the routing.
“We feel the oilfield will utilize (the bypass),” Ludwig said.
As for traffic coming into the city, he hopes there will be sufficient signage so that travellers who might want to stop in Estevan don’t miss the opportunity.
