It appears the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure is getting closer to a final location for the heavy truck bypass around Estevan.
Mayor Gary St. Onge said he recently spoke with officials from the ministry who informed him they are down to two options and are currently soliciting opinions from both the City and RM of Estevan, as well as other affected groups, on which direction to proceed.
Although the location for much of the route is decided, the ministry has had troubles determining where to intersect the bypass with Highway 39 west of Estevan. They initially decided on an intersection near the turn off to Rafferty Dam and the Pioneer Grain Terminal but were forced to alter that plan after several safety concerns were raised.
Those issues prompted the ministry to conduct a value engineering study which was completed in October and included a number of recommendations on how they should proceed.
"They are talking about two places further west," said St. Onge. "When they get feedback from the RM, the City, Richardson and CPR, they will hold a public consultation meeting because it is different from what they decided last time."
St. Onge said the City has asked that the public meeting be held within the next month. He added they would also like to see them move to the detailed engineering stage on the east and north ends of the bypass.
"Hopefully they will listen to us and get at it," said St. Onge who said both of the options would take the intersection away from the Pioneer Terminal, an important move as Richardson International, which is Pioneer's parent company, has major expansion plans for the terminal.
"Both of these will apparently work, although (Richardson) preferred the one that was farther west closer to the weigh scales which is a bit of problem because trucks will just get speeded up from the weigh scales and have to slow down.
"The one closer to the elevator is the one I think Highways is going to push for and I understand it may be about $1 million cheaper (than the other option)," said St. Onge.
