roadclosed

After a long winter the 2014-2015 Highway Construction season is now underway.  

With the population and economy of Saskatchewan growing, so is the amount of projects to improve our road system.  

"We have a number of projects going on this year, repaving projects as well as multiple year large projects," said Communications Consultant with the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure, Joel Cherry.  "The budget this year for highways and infrastructure was $664.5 million of that about $405.2 million was for transportation capital projects."

There are multiple projects going on around the province, Cherry tells us about a project we can expect crews to be working on this season in the southwest.  

"The most significant project is the repaving on Highway 1. It's in an area west of Beverly and East of Tompkins. The funding for that is coming in part from the Federal government is through the building Canada fund. There is going to be repaving of that road, which is significant because it is about 27 km total of Highway 1 and that stretch of highway carries 5,600 vehicles per day."

There is also going to be a bridge re-pavement project going on east of Shaunavon as well as other light maintenance.

Saskatchewan has 26,000 km of roads on our highway system and we have the largest amount of highway per capita in the country and on top of that there is 200,000 km of municipal roads.  Cherry adds with all the projects they are working on the Ministry is always trying to find a balance between upgrading and improvement of our road system.  

With increasing travel over the summer months and road construction Cherry says it is important for motorists to slow down.  

"A really important thing is for people to be aware of the work that it is going on and slow down in work zones.  We are going to be issuing weekly construction updates that we put on the web every week, which has a list of all the current projects in the province. People can check the Highway Hotline, lots of people check it during the winter but you can also check the highway hotline during the summer," said Cherry.