They were few in numbers, but the ideas that flowed from an intimate public meeting about twinning regional highways were interesting as well as realistic in scope.
The regional Time to Twin Highway 39 and 6 committee called for public input last Tuesday night and although fewer than two dozen people showed up, those who did sign in obviously came with open minds and some ideas of what could be done to improve the standards on southeast Saskatchewan highways.
The meeting provided solid note-taking fodder for Ron Gerbrandt, executive director, southern region operations at the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure as well as for Time to Twin co-chairwoman Marge Young and her committee.
Tim Schroh served as moderator for the two-hour meeting in the Days Inn Plaza that included words of encouragement from Weyburn Mayor Debra Button.
Contributors to the discussion focused attention on economic and safety reasons to advance the case for a four-lane throughway from North Portal to Regina. The group spoke to what might be accomplished in the short term to make this stretch of pavement safer and economically valuable.
"Look at the economy, there are a lot of people who travel on this highway daily," said Button. She said there were too many disasters on Highway 39 and 6 (south) that could be avoided. She added that the economic link provided by Highway 39 and 6 was a vital international one and she applauded the Time To Twin committee for maintaining pressure.
As the meeting progressed, it became apparent that a realistic plan to pursue might easily be a push to have 10 kilometres of Highway 39 between Bienfait and Estevan twinned over the next few years, or perhaps North Portal to Estevan and then focus on the higher density areas around Estevan, Weyburn and Regina to be twinned after that, with the eventual goal being an entire twinning.
Gerbrandt said the high traffic flow between Bienfait and Estevan has definitely caught the eye of the Highways Ministry as a traffic conduit that demanded attention. With the cost of twinning now being about $2 million per kilometre, he said there always have to be compromises such as deciding to build an overpass versus spending equal amounts of money on twinning a highway but not being able to do both.
Young provided statistical information showing how the local highway will have to compete with Highways 7 (Saskatoon to Kindersley) and Highway 16 (Saskatoon to Yorkton) for attention since they too, are high traffic highways that are demanding consideration. She told the assembled people of the committee's meetings with current Highways Minister Don McMorris and former minister Jim Reiter and how the committee began five years ago.
"We've done surveys, written letters, signed petitions and got interviewed by the media," said Young. "We needed reasons to keep going and we got them when we had three close-call incidents on this highway within a couple of months that involved our families. That gave us the incentive."
The gathering also learned from Gerbrandt that the weigh scales outside Estevan are closed and won't be re-opened anytime soon due to reluctance of potential highway traffic officers to relocate to Estevan thanks to local housing costs and a lack of trained personnel. Six officers are currently in training and none are slated for Estevan, he said. Scales near Swift Current have also been closed.
With over $12 billion in goods coming through the North Portal Port annually and expected growth with a commodities hub soon to open at Northgate, there is reason to believe the pressure on the southeast highway system is not about to ease.
Kelly Dayman, one of the owners and operators of a local trucking firm, noted that two more trucking companies have purchased properties and each one is bringing in over 300 heavy haul trucks. They will contribute to the pressure on a new truck route that is supposed to be built within the next few years, as well as on the main throughways.
He said the traffic now coming from southern U.S. states as well as Minnesota on to Regina, will only increase. It was noted that North Portal is now the seventh busiest port of entry into Canada from the United States. "They're coming here and then we throw them on a bad two-lane highway," he said.
Those attending the meeting said their corporate history indicated there had been a recommendation coming from national highway link committee to twin Highway 39 as far back as 1989 when discussions first arose regarding the potential for a global transportation hub which is now a reality on the outskirts of Regina.
Dayman said the pressure on the trucking industry as a result of the local oil industry is going to be here for quite awhile. The need for trucking interchanges will become ever more apparent, he said. With the pressure of coping with rail traffic, along with regular vehicular traffic, he said the trucking industry is facing increasing challenges, especially in the new era of having to get goods to markets within constantly tighter schedules.
"The oil money is not going into roads," he said.
Gerbrandt said where that money is invested has to be a government decision. He acknowledged that the $12.7 billion annual income from oil in Saskatchewan results in $1.7 billion in royalty money being sent to the provincial treasury.
The group noted that about 350 trucks bearing oil will be heading to Northgate on a daily basis once the new commodities hub is completed, along with 73 trucks a day that will be hauling grain and many of those will start or finish on local highways such No. 47, which is another major route to Regina (using the intersection to Highway 33) used by local drivers who try to avoid the increasingly dangerous Highway 39 route.
Abbie Velestuk, a Time to Twin committee member, described how she felt a passing lane configuration on Highway 39 would not be feasible or safe and cited the deplorable condition of the current highway between Estevan and Macoun as being something that should be addressed immediately.
She and Young pointed out that with the clean coal project attracting more traffic, the commodities hub, the global transportation hub, Bakken oil play and increasing traffic at North Portal, the case had to be made for serious consideration of a better highway to link United States centres to Regina.
Gerbrandt said there definitely was a different economic argument to be made by the southeast committee and it is consistent with what they had heard before.
Don Kindopp asked if there was something the local community could do in the short term to improve transportation and communication with the Highways Ministry.
Gerbrandt said the continual upgrading of statistical information is always a positive move and there will always be a delicate balancing act to perform within the ministry as decisions are made regarding highway upgrades.
The increasing volume of freight trains in the region was another factor that cried out for consideration, the audience said, noting that investments made on transportation in the southeast would pay off for decades.
Truck traffic has increased by over 50 per cent, they said, as has rail traffic and there will soon be a five-fold increase in commercial traffic on other nearby highways. That means traffic counts will be well above 5,000 per day on Highway 39 within a year or two. Gerbrandt said typical triggers for Highway Ministry decisions usually focus on peak traffic counts, peak periods of a typical day versus high traffic flows at all times of the day.
Kindopp asked if the ministry looked at highway traffic officers as being revenue generators rather than costs, would they reconsider the Estevan weigh scale option?
Gerbrandt said they attempt to send officers out in the area, but hotel availability and costs make it difficult. But, he acknowledged there are safety considerations as well as the need to protect the integrity of the highway along with income from issuing traffic tickets to offending truckers. He added though, that for the most part, truckers arriving in Saskatchewan from the U.S. are restricted to lower load weights in the U.S. than they are in Canada, so usually their load sizes and weights are not factors.
Dayman noted how modern trucking methods require a lot more oversized loads to hit the highways that aren't built to accommodate them meaning that they end up "rumble driving," - driving partially on the shoulder rumble strips and those are often pretty narrow shoulders.
Schroh noted how it has become a challenge for the ministry to keep the roads in decent repair, let alone building or rebuilding them.
"So we look at this and ask, what's the short term plan, if there is no long term plan?"
Velestuk said if there is no action on infrastructure soon, Estevan and Weyburn will become "the next Williston," a reference to the small North Dakota city that is currently struggling to accommodate a burgeoning Bakken oil play and has been for the past three years.
"Bakken is getting bigger, not smaller," said Dayman.
Kindopp asked if there were options such as pulling back speed limits to reduce danger, or if more education could be used to convince drivers to act more responsibly? He said he felt there was a need to keep an advocacy committee intact to maintain pressure on authorities to look at solutions, especially for the short term.
Button also noted that the focus on tourism cannot be forgotten.
Gerbrandt said he understood the questions and concerns and added that when action is taken, it would be with an outlook of serving the district for 10 or 20 years.
In answering a question from the committee as to whether Highway 39 was even on the radar, Gerbrandt said it definitely was, especially the Bienfait to Estevan stretch.
The assembled group concluded their remarks by saying they had hoped to see some action taken before, or in concert with the economic boom, rather than later.
In conclusion, Young said she was very pleased with the input from the meeting and the interest of those who were in attendance.
"Any additional information they can send in adds to the cause and these people understood there were realistic options to look at as well as long-term ideas," said Gerbrandt in a short interview following the meeting.
