Although work on an eagerly anticipated commercial truck bypass around Estevan barely got underway in 2013, the steps leading up to the actual start of construction made this one of the major news stories of the year.
The bypass, which has been designed, redesigned and redesigned again, was still the focus of controversy as late as the final month of this year as several affected landowners raised a series of questions about the planning of the route and the expropriation methods and land values being used by the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure. Other producers voiced concerns about the lack of access to their own land based on the planned route. Still others worried about safety issues with the $27 million project that has been discussed and negotiated for several years with the actual pre-construction dirt moving on the east side of the north to south bypass route, starting in October.
