(File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Cam Lee

Highway improvements

Provincial government announces local highway infrastructure improvements

May 15, 2020 | 3:58 PM

A number of local highway infrastructure programs have been announced for the 2020-2021 construction season.

The provincial government announced a $300 million highways stimulus package earlier this week. The projects vary from highway surface upgrades and passing lanes, to other road, bridge, and airport improvements.

Highways Minister Greg Ottenbreit told northeastNOW the Highway 55 bridge project in Nipawin is nearing completion.

“They’re doing final site restoration and minor paving repairs to wrap up the past year’s rehab on the Nipawin project,” Ottenbreit said. “It’s undergone painting, and the contract for the season is pretty much complete.”

Bridge rehab is taking place on Muskoday Bridge about 14 km north of Birch Hills on Highway 3. That includes cleaning and repainting the structural steel. The contractor did the same work on the Nipawin project.

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There is also some minor bridge rehabilitation work that is planned for the bridge on Highway 23 between Arborfield and Carrot River, and Ottenbreit said final paving and clean-up work are set to take place at the bridge on Highway 3 at the Eldersley access.

“The work is expected to begin right after the long weekend on that,” Ottenbreit said.

Some light highway preservation work is planned for later this year on a number of sections of Highway 41 between Alvena and Melfort. Ottenbreit said some of that work would include crack sealing.

There will also be about 26 km of paving on Highway 3, including 10 km north of Junction 25 to Prince Albert, and then on the Birch Hills access at Highway 3 and 25. Ottenbreit said that project is worth $9.1 million.

Ottenbreit said these highway infrastructure improvements are important to improve safety for drivers in the province, and also to stimulate the economy. The recent $300 million stimulus announcement was in addition to the $358 million worth of projects that were already planned.

“A lot of these projects were quite important. We were able to fast-track quite a few of them that would have been in the planning stages,” Ottenbreit said. “But in light of the recovery from (COVID-19) and the economic recovery that we’re wanting to achieve, we’re getting some of these projects out.”

He said more employees and contractors will be employed with these projects, and it also means the work gets done earlier to serve citizens of the province.

Many businesses have been forced to make social distancing or other changes in light of COVID-19. However, Ottenbreit said he didn’t anticipate highway crews would have to alter what they do in a major way.

“By nature, the construction crews are pretty much personal distancing anyway. There are some PPE (personal protective equipment) requirements that will be put into place to make sure that they’re able to have that protection if they are working in close proximity,” Ottenbreit said.

He said they are not anticipating any slowdown in the work season, except possibly for weather. Ottenbreit added the province expects there will be quite a bit more work for contractors over the next year or two with the increase in highway construction spending.

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cam.lee@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @camlee1974