Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not
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It may feel like road work is never-ending on Broad Street around and south of College Avenue, but it looks like drivers might finally soon have a construction-free ride awaiting them.
The city confirmed for the last four summers some sort of construction project has occurred on two different stretches in the area. “We’re not intentionally picking on areas to go do work again,” said Norman Kyle, the city’s director of roadways and transportation. “You got to remember, typically, a lot of this stuff was built at the same time … and so those assets, when they start to deteriorate, they’re going to go at the same time.”
Kyle said most recently, crews have been upgrading Broad between Broadway Avenue and 15th Avenue. That has taken the last two years.
Prior to that, work was done to the stretch between Broadway and just past Wascana Drive to the south near the bridge. Paving either has, or is, in the process of being done, while improvements have also been made to medians and sidewalks.
“A lot of extensive concrete work done there. We’ve done quite a bit of work on what’s a major road. ”
Asphalt work is currently being done between Broadway and 15th. Kyle said part of that was initiated by SaskPower in 2016, as the crown had to make upgrades to some of its underground infrastructure. He said it made sense for the city to double up.
“If they were going in and doing that much work, ripping that much road up, we might as well go in, in order to provide less inconvenience to the public over the years,” said Kyle.
SaskPower was scheduled to have those upgrades complete last year. However, because of wet weather, construction was delayed and carried over to 2017.
The question is, once this construction is complete, will there be any more waiting in the near future in this area?
“My understanding is once the paving’s done we’re good for a while,” confirmed Kyle.
Kyle said they’re currently finalizing their master plan for next year’s projects. At some point he said they’ll likely have to take a look at making upgrades on Broad Street around the downtown area.
