City awaits consultation for lights along dark Ring Road bend

Lighting could be on the way for the bend along Ring Road between Assiniboine Avenue and Albert Street South, according to the City of Regina’s director of roadways and transportation.

Norm Kyle said the city has been in internal talks about the issue since late 2016, after receiving a number of requests for lighting along that strip.

Since the stretch is a cross-jurisdictional highway, the city has been working with the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure to secure funding and a design.

“(Highways) typically aren’t lit, but with the volumes on this stretch of road and the proximity to the city, and the fact that we’re doing the maintenance on it, we’ve been looking into installing lighting on there,” Kyle said.

He said the city has some funding but is waiting to get a consultant in place to draw up a lighting design to see how far that money will go.

“We’re going to have them look at options for lighting it, whether we do centre lighting down the median or we do lighting from the shoulders in,” he explained, noting the city is interested in expressway LED lighting, due to the reduced power consumption.

Once the consultation is complete, the city will know whether its funding is sufficient enough to install it. Should the city not have enough, it might only go through with a portion of the lighting and then return to city council for more money to build on.

If all goes well, Kyle said the city should have a price and timeline for the project by summertime. Ideally, the lighting would be installed at the end of this year or early next.