Now that the provincial Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure has persuaded a few of their soldiers to venture into the wilds of southeast Saskatchewan to perform a few perfunctory duties, we see a build up of confidence within our province's road building community.
The highway building crews in Saskatchewan have entered into the world of overpasses, bypasses, interchanges and expressways as part of their every day conversations and plans.
In other words, Saskatchewan is now getting to build these more mammoth projects, just like the big kids do in Ontario, B.C. and Alberta.
A single overpass plan for the outskirts of Saskatoon or Regina no longer sends them into a dither and a confusing influx of mixed messages and knee-jerk reactions.
The province needs three overpasses in Saskatoon in the next five years, two for Regina and better access to the transportation hub. They need a truck bypass in Estevan as well as a twinned highway that isn't the usual Trans-Canada link.
The once novel dreams and futuristic concepts are now part of their daily planning sessions.
Of course, figuring out a way to pay for all these transportation necessities, without much help from the feds, also has to be a part of their daily considerations. That's why the province has entered into the world of private/public partnerships. This model will allow Saskatchewan to move on projects much more rapidly and perhaps, if we're lucky, enable them to play a little catch up on some long-ignored projects.
Trucking remains the lifeblood of commerce on the Canadian prairies. Rail serves a limited purpose for us. It no longer moves people on the prairies and only moves our commodities on long-haul contracts. Short hauls remain the trucker's domain, and it's because of that, we require sturdy all-weather highways.
And while there are challenges to meet the growing demand for decent throughways in the southern end of the province, the puzzles that befuddle Highways and Infrastructure in the more northern regions are no less demanding. In those regions they are met with fewer people but no lessened needs. It simply drives home the fact that Saskatchewan's population is still scattered all over and we intend to keep it that way. Our governments over the years, have had to learn to accept that fact and provide the best possible services to all of us, whether it be roads, power, telephones or natural gas.
So last week's foray into Estevan to talk about twinning a 12-kilometre stretch of Highway 39 has to be taken with an air of confidence. Our engineering fraternity is learning how to handle the bigger stuff, and such projects as a bridge overpass repair no longer needs to take two years to complete as it did not too long ago.
And, of course, once they begin to actually build our long-awaited truck bypass, we bet they'll complete it in rapid order because they now have the hang of it. There no longer needs to be the intimidation factor at play when we discuss Saskatchewan highways and the need to build them or repair them and oh yes, pay for them!
