With winter making its move towards southeast Saskatchewan, the City of Estevan is busy wrapping up a handful of projects before the snow flies.
Among the jobs recently completed is the repaving project on Fourth Avenue south. Funded by the Provincial Disaster Assistance Program due to the damage suffered from last year's floods, Fourth Avenue was repaved from Woodlawn Avenue to the entrance to Jubilee Place. The projects also included the reconstruction and paving of the walking path that runs alongside the south leg of the avenue and the reconstruction of the road leading to the Estevan Humane Society.
"It's a night and day difference," city manager Jim Puffalt said of Fourth Avenue. "Obviously the pathway was a very key thing as well because it is a great way for people to walk down to the park."
Another job that has been in the works for some time is the paving of the Souris Valley Aquatic and Leisure Centre parking lot.
The section of the lot near the ICON Centre was paved earlier this summer and crews are currently at work on a section of the lot in front of the leisure centre. Puffalt said the contractor plans to continue working on the pavement throughout the winter and they are hopeful of getting the section they are currently on paved before the snow flies.
"We don't want to open up any more of the road, but we want to continue to do concrete," he said. "They are going to continue with the concrete so they will be able to come in first thing in the spring and finish it off."
Asked why the project has been moving slowly, Puffalt said part of the problem has been getting cement as the clean coal project at the Boundary Dam Power Station has been taking up much of the supply.
Puffalt said the project to replace the aging watermains on Sixth Street is expected to be finished this week.
The work is part of an overall plan to upgrade the underground utilities in that area and then pave the dirt section of the road from Souris Avenue to Kensington Avenue. In 2013 the City will finish with the watermains and then pave the road in 2014.
Another area of interest for the City is the service road that runs alongside Kensington Avenue. Puffalt said they have been in talks with TS&M Supply about possibly transferring the service road to the company.
"We want to put lights at Devonian and Kensington. Our traffic study has just come in and it shows that we have to close that service road off to put traffic lights up. The service road is so close to the intersection that it is just stacking people up unnecessarily. We've got lots of work to do there, but we have to look at closing off the whole service road."
Puffalt said if the road is closed, the solution will be to be build approaches off Kensington Avenue and noted that TS&M has already begun that process by constructing two access points.
"We'll have to do one more approach because there is one property that needs an approach back out to (Kensington). The corner property, we are looking at going back out to Devonian Street. I think with lights and some approaches, you are probably going to have way better traffic flow. That service road was a poor idea to begin with."
Puffalt said the City is also working on plans to have paved walking paths the length of Kensington Avenue, something that was neglected when the road was originally configured.
