There are indications from the provincial government that the proposed and long-awaited twinning of Highway 6/39 may actually never happen, following a recent meeting between Highways Minister David Marit and his American counterpart from North Dakota.
Ironically, the Republican member from the North Dakota House of Representatives, Dan Ruby, was accompanied by members of a group concerned with the safety of Highway 52, which is the continuation of Highway 39 after crossing the border from Canada at North Portal.
The whole intent of the proposal to twin this incredibly busy highway, which will only become busier once the work ongoing in Regina is completed, is to make Highway 39 and 6 safer. This highway corridor is already choked with transport trucks, and the many accidents that have occurred along the highway has led to a strong demand from citizens, businesses and municipalities for a safer highway that can handle all the traffic.
According to what minister Marit told his U.S. counterpart, the government is considering instead the possibility of just using passing lanes and not twinning the highway at all. If this is true at all, it is a major mistake on the province’s part, and is at best a myopic approach that is not looking at safey or at the long-term big picture.
As trade will continue to grow with the United States (regardless of what one might think after hearing the protectionist attitudes of President Donald Trump), traffic between Regina and the U.S. will only grow, not diminish, and passing lanes are not going to cut it.
One only has to make the drive from Weyburn to Regina and observe how many crosses are in the ditches along the way — each one marking a place where one or more people lost their lives in collisions. Sometimes these crosses are in places that don’t appear to be that dangerous in terms of layout or sight-lines, but there were obviously circumstances in each instance that led to deaths.
There has already been a high price paid for having this highway as a two-lane corridor from the provincial capital down into the heart of the United States.
Maybe the money is a bit tight at this time economically, but that is simply looking at the short-term, at what is right in front of us. The government needs to look long-term, knowing what is coming down the road in terms of trade and development, and consider that in the years to come, there will be a need to have a safe transportation corridor, not only for the transports, but for the citizens who travel that road each and every day.
