A future plan for highway systems through and around Swift Current is in the works.

The study will be carried out by the ministry of highways and infrastructure (MHI) after Swift Current city council approved the three-way agreement at council Monday night.

The study's total cost is pegged around $100,000-$120,000, with the MHI covering half of it, the city of Swift Current covering 40 per cent of the cost ($40,000-$50,000), and the RM of Swift Current picking up the remaining tab of 10 per cent.

Swift Current's General Manager of Infrastructure and Operations Mitch Minken said the study idea was brought to the city by the MHI who's already completed such work in Yorkton and Weyburn, and Swift Current was one of the next regions on their list.

"The regional plans are often focused on the boundary area around urban centres since that is where the provincial, city, rural, and rural municipal road networks interact," he said. "They're typically high-level studies that include highways, key arterial roads, and key municipal roads."

The study will look at the off-ramps to service roads from the Trans-Canada Highway, the feasibility of more overpasses, and pedestrian access along the service roads.

"I think those are three very important projects that many residents have expressed concern and questions over," Swift Current city councillor Pat Friesen said.

Another councillor that was very much in favour of the study was Ryan Plewis, noting it could lead to large highway projects in the area sooner rather than later.

"I think it paves the way, no pun intended, to getting some future projects revenue shared within our community," he said. "These are all projects of course that matter to not only the residents of the city of Swift Current but throughout our entire community which of course involves those folks in the RM right around us."

Plewis also mentioned it's nice not having to go back through the city's 2020 capital budget to pay for the study, instead they'll be using leftover funds from the under-budget Chaplin Street bridge rehabilitation project.

The last member of council to chime in on the study was mayor Al Bridal who wondered if the study would look at a potential speed reduction on the Trans-Canada Highway through Swift Current.

"Do you know why it has to be 100 when other city's get 80, where these highways go through the city," he asked Minken.

According to Minken because the final agreement hasn't been inked between the three parties the parameters of the study are negotiable in case city council wanted to add more things.

The city expects the study to begin around February or March of next year but no exact date has been set yet.