THE GREAT ROAD SHOW
A year after the Saskatchewan government signed a $1.88-billion public-private partnership contract for the Regina bypass, reporter Natascia Lypny got an opportunity to tour the province’s largest transportation project.
ON TIME, ON BUDGET
It’s an oft-cited comment with fixed-price and set-timeline projects, but project director Alisdair Dickinson said the project is on track. More than 120 staff and 500 labourers are toiling on the highway, which includes 12 overpasses, new and resurfaced highways, and new service roads.
Work is happening along the extent of the route, from Balgonie to Highway 11. Dickinson said “every day is a challenge in this industry,” but nothing has snagged the team yet. There have been no lost-time workplace incidents. David Stearns, Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure executive director of major projects overseeing the bypass, said the build primarily aims to improve road safety, uninterrupted flow of traffic and access to the Global Transportation Hub.
The consortium will be managing the bypass for 30 years after construction completion.
HELLO DOWN THERE!
The team has dug five “borrow pits” like the one located east of the intersection of the TransCanada Highway and Tower Road. The project is using 15 million cubic metres of material — largely dirt and sand — to build up embankments for the interchanges and other areas.
To put that into perspective, the “big dig” of Wascana Lake was one million cubic metres. Equipment was trucked in from Fort McMurray, Alta., for this work, including 100-ton haul trucks that measure 15 feet high. Dickinson said the consortium is currently figuring out how the pits will be used post-construction.
COMPLEX INTERCHANGES
This interchange at the TransCanada and Pinkie Road is the most complicated of the bunch. Like the one at Tower Road, it allows drivers to zip through the interchange without slowing down if they’re travelling east or west along the TransCanada. The work needed at Pinkie Road to mesh it with the bypass required the dismantling of some of its relatively new components, but the team says most of the interchange is being salvaged. Although the west and south portions of the bypass are slated for completion in the fall of 2019, work is ongoing now.
EAST OF REGINA PRIORITIZED
Pushing for an October 2017 deadline, work is in full swing east of the city, like here at the Tower Road interchange. As with Pinkie Road, through-traffic will have an unimpeded route. Meanwhile, those heading into Regina will need to use a ramp and those exiting will take a bridge. The team has begun constructing bridge structures for the interchanges and is working on a north service road by Pilot Butte. That stretch, along with a new south service road, should be usable in the coming months. Dickinson said managing traffic while all this work is going on has been “fairly intensive” but there’s a light at the end of the highway.