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After five months of construction on McCarthy Boulevard, the City of Regina says its crews plan to pick up where they left off next spring.
Until then, the road’s repaving remains unfinished between Dalgliesh Drive and Ninth Avenue North, leaving behind raggedy ridges for drivers in the southbound lanes.
“It’s just not finished; they didn’t smooth it out,” Matt Wrobel explained. “Vehicles are literally somewhat diagonal while they’re driving down those left lanes.”
Since he lives nearby, Wrobel added, McCarthy was always the main artery in his commute.
“We drove down the road the other night, my wife and I, and we just stared at each other,” he said. “This is ridiculous. It’s something that we’re purposefully going to avoid now.”
According to City of Regina spokesperson Desirae Bernreuther, the road has been left in a safe condition for motorists. She said crews are behind because the job required more concrete than first expected.
“The concrete repairs were more extensive than originally anticipated, which caused the work to take longer to complete,” Bernreuther wrote in an emailed statement Friday afternoon.
“By taking our time to do the right repairs and replacements, this infrastructure will be in place for many years before it needs to be worked on again.”
Bernreuther noted the paving work on that stretch of McCarthy is set to be complete next year, along with the remaining concrete curb and gutter work between Ninth Avenue North and Rink Avenue.
In the meantime, Wrobel said “it’s annoying” drivers will have to go through the traffic restrictions all over again next spring.
“Don’t we pay these guys to do the job once? It just seems like an extremely big waste of money,” he said. “It should just be done right the first time.”
