The highways in the Estevan area experienced a small drop in traffic in 2014, according to the Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure’s annual traffic volume map, which was recently released.
Doug Wakabayashi, the executive director of the ministry’s communications branch, said the highway traffic was down about 2.6 per cent compared with 2013.
“But if you look at it over three years, going back to 2011, traffic on the highways leading into the Estevan area has increased about 12 per cent,” Wakabayashi told the Mercury.
The busiest corridor remained Highway 39 east of Estevan. There were 8,050 vehicles per day just east of the city limits, and 6,200 vehicles per day east of the Shand Power Station access road. Both numbers are down from the 9,080 and 6,650 vehicles per day, respectively, recorded the year before.
Numbers also declined on Highway 39 west. The first tallying area west of the city limits dropped from 4,550 vehicles per day to 4,520, and another site, Hitchcock, dropped from 4,460 to 3,840 vehicles per day.
On Highway 47, there were 3,280 vehicles each day at the north entrance to Estevan, compared with 3,810 a year earlier, and there were 2,960 north of the city, compared with 3,110 last year.
Highway 47 south saw a small jump from 1,170 in 2013 to 1,180 last year, while traffic south of the city increased from 920 to 1,000 vehicles per day.
Highway 18 west of Estevan had mixed results. A tabulation point east of the Boundary Dam Power Station access road jumped from 2,140 vehicles per day to 2,240, but another one west of the access road dropped from 1,170 vehicles to 980 each day.
Among the other notable routes was Highway 39 between North Portal and the junction with Highway 18. It experienced a significant traffic increase. The average vehicle count in 2013 ranged from 1,130 per day at North Portal to 1,660 per day near the Roche Percee access road. Those numbers increased last year to 1,200 vehicles a day at North Portal and 2,020 vehicles a day near the access road.
Most of the data is collected through portable traffic counters that are positioned on a highway for a 48-hour period in the spring or the fall. Then the data is tabulated in the winter and spring of 2014.
The frequency in conducting a traffic count on a highway ranges from annually to once every three or four years.
They do have some permanent counters installed at various locations on the highway system, which track both regular vehicles and heavy truck traffic.
Wakabayashi said the figures compiled for the map are very important for the ministry and the provincial government.
“We use traffic volumes, and projections of traffic volumes, to not only plan our major construction projects, but also our operation and maintenance activities,” said Wakabayashi. “It also helps drive some of the policy decisions we make.”
It can be hard to make conclusions based on just one year, he said. There can often be short-term spikes or declines in areas that rely on a particular industry. So the ministry likes to study numbers over several years, rather than just a one-year period.
