Since it’s early days, Estevan has been a city divided.
Situated to the north and south of a rail line, a common occurrence in the Energy City is to find oneself waiting for a train, with traffic backed up several blocks, an otherwise rare situation in a community of this size. Though the idea has been bandied about by politicians, residents and Mercury editorials for decades, there is no common means of bypassing a train once it’s blocking a main thoroughfare.
The free crossing from one side of the tracks to the other has generally been passed over as other priorities have, time and again, reared their heads. Aside from rare instances of emergencies, a crossing free of impediment from the railway is often a matter of convenience.
In the April 1 issue, The Mercury recounted an episode, in 1968, in which the City of Estevan decided not to move forward on a $1.05 million grade separation project to build an over or underpass across the rail tracks at Souris Avenue. The share from local taxpayers would have been $148,000.
Ever since, the project has been much discussed by locals, but very little real movement has occurred at a planning level.
However, the City of Estevan completed a consultant study in 2011, hiring Associated Engineering to complete the work at a cost of roughly $53,000. The study estimated a total project cost of about $6 million. Compared to 1968 prices, the adjusted costs haven’t risen at all. According to the Bank of Canada’s online inflation calculator, which uses monthly consumer price index data from 1914 to the present, a $1.05 million project in 1968 would cost just over $7.1 million today or $6.7 million back in 2011. By those numbers, a $6 million project might seem affordable.
In that study, all options were given a sober look. The study identified three areas in the city to add either an overpass or an underpass crossing the tracks. Those included Souris Avenue, for a central location; Kensington Avenue on the east side; and another location on the west side of Estevan near the hospital. The study looked at over and underpasses at each location.
“At that time in 2011, the study showed that Estevan should start considering that. It’s time. We’ve gotten to a population where it’s going to be needed,” said City manager Amber Smale.
“In the capital plan, we did identify five years from now, proceeding with either an overpass or an underpass. I think if the City could only do one, we would do Souris and Sixth (Street). That’s what the capital plan was based on,” she said, adding that location may work better with an underpass.
But that decision has yet to be made, so the complete configuration will have to be determined. Based on the capital plan outlined by Smale, the question is when will the City have to make that decision rather than if they will have to.
Whether that is in the next five years or at some other yet-to-be-determined date, it’s all about the money.
“Everything’s dependent on money,” Smale laughed.
Ed Komarnicki, Souris-Moose Mountain MP, said the project is a big picture one, like the truck bypass and twinning of Highway 39 and 6 from Regina to North Portal.
“It doesn’t make sense to leave that one hanging. It’s something that should be considered in the overall planning, for sure,” said Komarnicki.
And the MP isn’t alone in thinking the project should be done. In fact, one may be hard-pressed to find anybody who considers the project an unnecessary waste of money meant only to save a couple of impatient people a few minutes of their lives each year.
And the City has heard much from disgruntled commuters over the years.
“We’ve had many complaints over the years and lots of frustration because the number of trains have increased and the lengths (of the trains) get longer, and it does become more of an issue,” said Mayor Roy Ludwig.
But, despite everyone on board, at the moment, there is no sign the project will begin. As Smale said, it’s all dependent on money, not prayers or public support.
The City manager said all locations being considered are suitable for crossings that are either over or under. For underpasses, the primary consideration is ensuring proper drainage, which requires some more engineering work and maybe some additional costs.
“Having proper drainage to handle water would make an underpass a little bit more expensive than an overpass,” said Smale. “At the same time, an overpass would require more land.”
The City of Estevan has filed an application with the federal government requesting funds for the projects through the New Canada Building Fund. Funding from this initiative would see the federal government pay for a third of the project; the province, with its approval, would fund another third. The City would be on the hook for the final third of the project’s funds.
Smale said the Souris Avenue location may be the desired location because it’s central and, for the City, connects to the leisure centre.
“It’s a natural flow of traffic that way,” said Smale.
For the past 50 years, options have been on the table, but for a gluttony of reasons, the dream of many Estevanites to bypass a train has not come to fruition.
“There was an opportunity many years ago, and it was passed by, perhaps unfortunately, given today’s date,” said Komarnicki last week. “It’s not to say a project like that wouldn’t qualify in one program or another. As you know, there are other projects that take precedence, particularly related to water or wastewater and sewer.”
Those are more urgent conditions that need to be addressed.
“We’ve been inundated with other projects that are needed more,” Ludwig said, citing water treatment and wastewater upgrades. “If the opportunity were to arise, and that would be the federal government saying ‘yes,’ then of course, we’d have to lobby the province and then get ready ourselves.”
Komarnicki said looking back on past decisions not to move forward with the project have to be looked at in the complete context of the time.
“There were other things that were in play as well. As always, there were a number of factors, and if you take one in isolation, you say ‘why not?’ But it has to be given context in what they were dealing with at the time,” he said.
