Highways are not as stagnant as you may think.
Just two months after the open house organized by Sask. Highways and Infrastructure invited residents to view numerous concepts and provide feedback on what may work best for traffic changing onto the bypass, another open house took place on Sept. 18.
This time however, the concepts strewn across the tables were slightly different.
"The difference with this open house is that we're actually presenting recommended options. From the previous open house, there was a lot of feedback from people who came out and from those comments, we actually took some things from those comments and as a result incorporated some new options," said Brent Miller, director of Highways and Infrastructure, who was at the open house Wednesday evening.
One of the alterations to Highway 39 that would allow traffic to change onto the bypass from the highway, labelled as "Option D," involved some minimal changes to the existing highway and would be located north of the Memorial Gardens. Miller said this particular plan would provide all directions of traffic going to and from Estevan with good turning movements.
"Highway 39 East has a lot going on in that particular junction and there's a lot of traffic coming from Bienfait, the Shand Power Station and from the City of Estevan and of course the truck bypass," said Miller. "We've had a lot of discussions with the City of Estevan, the RM of Estevan as part of the steering committee, along with Tetra Tech and Highways. There were a lot of evaluations and options presented, some of which turned into hybrid options as a result of some feedback and I think we came up with something that will work very well."
The Bienfait grid, Miller noted, was an option that required little discussion.
"Right from day one, there was a consensus for this idea which was in a simpler location," he said.
The time frame for the completion of these interchanges has not changed and is still expected to be a relatively slow process. Miller said there are "no immediate plans" to get these highway alterations started, but suggested Estevan and the surrounding area is on the right path when it comes to economic growth and development.
"There are a lot of positive things happening," he said, referring to the twinning of Highway 39 between North Portal and Regina. "The government is trying to position itself in a way that if a decision is made to act on it and begin construction, we don't have to start from scratch at the planning phase, we can have all of this completed and be in more of a position to get things going." He added that funding also comes into play, and once the bypasses are installed, the government will be monitoring the traffic volumes closely in order to determine what steps to take moving forward.
"You can do your best forecasting, but there's nothing like studying real data," explained Miller.
Manpreet Sangha, economic development officer for the Estevan Chamber of Commerce, praised the open house's ability to incorporate the public's voice.
"I think it's great when you have different options. It becomes easier for us to decide which one is ultimately the best one," she said. "The public can decide for themselves what option is the best for themselves and from a traffic control point-of-view. The people appear to have a keen interest in seeing these possibilities."
President of the Estevan Chamber of Commerce, Ken Rowan, appreciated the plans that emphasized a minimal amount of "vehicle to vehicle conflict," meaning traffic flow a lot smoother without having to stop. Rowan said things have "slowed down a bit" in terms of economic growth, but is optimistic about the near future and the flow of oil.
"They've been talking about the Torquay Formation, so hopefully we'll get some oil flowing again and see that economic activity pick up again."
