Saskatoon city council has awarded a $600,000 contract for a study looking at ways to get around railway crossings in the city.
Calgary-based HDR Corporation will provide engineering services to execute the two-phase plan.
READ MORE: Traffic delays at railway crossings costing Saskatoon businesses $2.5M yearly
The study’s first phase looks at the benefits and costs of moving railways outside of the city, along with constructing overpasses or underpasses at nine rail crossings.
Phase one has a price tag of approximately $220,000.
“This is a lot of money if the recommendation just comes back that we should keep the status quo and so I am hoping very optimistically that we see some progress from these reports,” Ward 5 Coun. Randy Donauer said.
Once the first phase is complete, council will decide whether to proceed with phase two, which is expected to cost about $380,000.
If the first phase recommends moving rail lines, the second step will focus on documents and designs needed to work with CP Rail and the federal government.
READ MORE: Saskatoon officials to work on rail delay plans
If the first phase recommends grade separation, each piece of infrastructure will be engineered, designed and prepared for tenders.
“We don’t have very concrete information. We have a lot of speculation and a lot of anecdotal ideas about the costs,” Mayor Charlie Clark said in an interview.
Funding for half the study is provided by the federal government.
“Even the overpasses or underpasses are of a significant magnitude and we would require partnership funding,” Clark said.
Recommendations resulting from the first phase of the study are expected to be submitted to the city’s standing policy committee on transportation in December.
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