Highway work projects to add passing lanes, spend $700M

Get ready for some highway headaches as you head out of town for the summer.

The provincial government announced Wednesday its highway road work schedule for the year.

Crews are already busy digging up Highway 2 north of Moose Jaw and Highway 7 between Rosetown and Kindersley; those stretches are getting passing lanes.

The province will spend $700 million this year on those and other highway projects that cover some 1,000 kilometres of road.

Much of the work is being done at intersections in the province.

“This year’s investment in highway construction has a focus on safety,” Highways and Infrastructure Minister Lori Carr said in a media release. “We are launching the Enhanced Intersection Safety Program, which is a multi-year plan that funds a number of safety-focused projects province-wide.”

Those projects include intersection safety enhancements, rumble strips, clearing of sight issues and other safety projects like guardrails and lighting.

The intersection work was planned previously, but was expedited after the Humboldt Broncos bus crash at a rural intersection north of Tisdale in April of 2018.

Later this summer, highways 9 and 10 near Yorkton will also go under the drill to add passing lanes.

The media release from the government said that more than a dozen “projects are part of the (highway and infrastructure) ministry’s spring tender plan, which include about 100 kilometres of highway work.”

Other tendered projects include:

• Intersection improvements on Highway 1 at Kalium Road;
• 15 km of resurfacing of Highway 6 north of Southey;
• 38 km of resurfacing west of Delisle on Highway 7;
• 32 km of resurfacing on Highway 39 south of the junction near Corinne; and,
• 14 km of resurfacing on Highway 47 south of Estevan.