The Ministry of Highway and Infrastructure was in Bienfait Tuesday evening presenting the preferred alignment for the planned twinning of Highway 39 between Estevan and Bienfait.
The public open house at Weldon School displayed aerial images of the highway that showed the preferred plan would run the two divided eastbound lanes south of the existing highway.
Ministry spokesperson Joel Cherry noted that the environmental assessment found there were seven rare or endangered species in the study area, among those were four plant species and three animal species. Mitigation plans are being determined with the Ministry of Environment.
Tuesday’s open house also unveiled proposed options for twinning the highway from Bienfait to North Portal and the U.S. border. The Ministry is accepting feedback on how to proceed with that section, which they have called Phase 2.
The Ministry will present the preferred option for that section during an open house in April.
For a complete story on the pre-construction update, see next week’s Estevan Mercury.
