SASKATOON — The Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways has asked the RM of Corman Park to endorse the potential construction of a set of passing lanes along Highway 41 east of Saskatoon.
During the public works committee meeting on Feb. 11, an administration report was presented to Corman Park councillors detailing the potential construction of passing lanes along Highway 41, which runs past the community of Aberdeen on the way to Melfort.
A representative of the Ministry of Highways, senior project manager Joshua Kerr, also took part in the meeting to answer questions from council.
The report stated that the province is still in the planning stages of this project, but passing lanes will potentially be constructed from Highway 5 to Highway 2. One set of these lanes shall be built within the RM of Corman Park on the northwest and southeast sides of the highway.
In addition, the province has completed an initial review of the existing accesses along the highway and is proposing to close some of them, with service roads being built to replace them. In particular, the ministry is considering the potential closure of the access to Range Road 3043 and Township Road 374.
The report states that council will be presented a future report on the Access Management Plan once it’s finalized.
As such, the province was only looking for endorsement of the passing lane within the RM, with further discussion about the Access Management Plan shelved until later.
Administration suggested that the public works committee recommend to council that they endorse the Highway 41 passing lanes.
The committee voted in favour of the recommendation, and the matter will be dealt with at the council meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 25.
Division 1 Councillor John Germs asked if these passing lanes would be constructed within the easements of the existing highways.
Kerr replied, “That is the hope. Because we haven’t completed the detailed design, we don’t know for sure whether or not we’re going to have to purchase land for the construction of passing lanes.”
He noted that as the grade changes throughout the highway corridor, some of their land requirements may become “slightly more than what we have available,” but in a lot of past projects, they’ve been able to build passing lanes within existing rights-of-way.
Germs also asked if there would be any kind of public consultation done with adjacent landowners, noting that this was the first he had heard of this project.
Kerr said that with the general positioning, they hadn’t done any specific consultation with landowners, instead reaching out to RMs and major stakeholders.
However, as they go through the detailed design process, they will be reaching out to affected landowners with regards to access changes or to purchase additional land, Kerr said.
Germs then asked about whether Township Road 374 would be closed, or if it would still have access to Highway 41.
“It’s a major road that’s used by lots of people,” he said, noting the RM had invested greatly into that road.
Kerr said they were proposing to close Township 374, but this was an area where more consultation was needed.
“That is ultimately something that we would flag with our detailed design group to look at,” said Kerr. “It may be recommended to be ‘closed’ … However, none of our access management stuff is set in stone.”
Germs said that if Township Road 374 was closed, he feared all the traffic coming from the northeast would use other ‘shortcut roads’ into the city, which would greatly impact those roads.
Otherwise, Germs said he supported the construction of passing lanes in principle, as the amount of traffic going along Highway 41 is continually increasing.
Division 8 Councillor Wendy Trask said she agreed with Germs, adding, “These passing lanes are very badly needed, and hopefully it will save some lives.”
Having said that, Trask indicated if Township Road 374 was ever closed, “I think we would have a revolt out there.”
Reeve Joe Hargrave said passing lanes along Highway 41 were overdue, but asked if the passing lane within the RM would go all the way up to Wakaw.
Kerr said they are currently planning five passing lanes from the junction of Highway 5 up to Wakaw, which would be relatively evenly spaced along the highway.
