Century-old cobblestones unearthed on Victoria Ave.
The work on Victoria Avenue is intended in part to make the street more convenient for cyclists, but crews uncovered remnants from a time when horses ruled the road.
During the rehabilitation project on Victoria Avenue, which began in 2017 and includes the addition of cycling tracks on the sidewalks, the remains of a cobblestone road built in 1912 were discovered.
“The purpose was to provide a better footing for horses,” City of Saskatoon archivist Jeff O’brien explained in an email.
Cobblestones were laid at various locations in Saskatoon, including on the hills leading down to the Traffic Bridge, which opened in 1907.
The stretch of Victoria from 11th Street to Saskatchewan Crescent was called the Short Hill, which had one of the steepest grades in the city at 11.2 per cent.
The city contracted Shepley and Fielding, a company from St. Paul, Minn., to perform the work at a cost of $5.10 per square yard for 24,300 square yards (2,257.5 square metres). The contract included five years of maintenance on the work.
The total cost of the project was just shy of $155,000.
The Kettle River sandstone used was provided by the Kettle River Company of Minneapolis, Minn.
The city has salvaged some of the cobblestones for use in a future public art project, possibly to be located in River Landing or in Rotary Park.
Cobblestones were also uncovered and salvaged during work near River Landing in 2007 on what was once known as the 19th Street subway, but is now the 19th Street underpass beneath Idylwyld Drive. Some of those cobblestones have been used as a base for benches located in front of Persephone Theatre.
The work on Victoria is expected to be completed in time for the Oct. 3 opening of the rebuilt Traffic Bridge. The Victoria revamp removed a southbound lane for automobile traffic and added wider sidewalks with a cycling track on either side.
The cycling tracks are intended to provide a better connection to the new bridge, which will feature three-metre-wide pathways for pedestrians and cyclists on either side.
The old Traffic Bridge only had a narrow passage for pedestrians and cyclists on the west side.
The bridge is being rebuilt as part of a massive infrastructure project to build two new bridges, while the Victoria work is a separate project by a different company.