The province says the Regina Bypass is on time and on budget and will be opening soon.
Construction is expected to be completed in the fall.
“There’s just a few short months to go before the largest transportation infrastructure project in Saskatchewan’s history is complete,” Highways and Infrastructure Minister Lori Carr said in a news release. “This project will have a major impact on the economy of Saskatchewan and the Regina area, as well as traffic safety. Work isn’t even finished yet and the RCMP, first responders, municipal officials and drivers are telling us the work east of Regina has made a dramatic improvement to safety.”
According to the province, the east portion of the bypass that opened in 2017 has reduced collisions at intersections with Highway 1 east. An independent study commissioned by the province also says bypass construction created 9,200 jobs and will see $2.3 billion in travel delay savings in the next 30 years.
At a press tour of the construction held Thursday, the top brass of the bypass project said the goal is for the other sections to help reduce congestion.
“It’ll take a lot of the truck traffic off of Victoria Avenue, and a lot of the passenger vehicles will notice a huge difference and have a lot more room to maneuver on Victoria Avenue,” said Brent Miller, Director of the Regina Bypass.
The province says work is 95 per cent complete. Remaining work includes paving Arcola Avenue to Highway 11, bridge work, guardrail and curb installation, line painting, signage and lights.
“The primary works that we’re really focusing on are the remainder of the pavings, we’ve got approximately 200 thousand tonnes of asphalt pavement to go down,” said Bypass Deputy Director Justin Churko. “Then we’ve got a bunch of jewelry to go on top of that as well, kind of referring to signage, line lanes.”
Drivers are reminded that unopened sections of the bypass are active work zones and they should obey signs and speed reductions in those zones.
