White City overpass ready for traffic

The Province unveiled the White City overpass on Thursday, the second completed bridge in the $1.88 billion Regina Bypass Project.

The bridge will be open to traffic within the next day. It’s designed to improve traffic flow and heighten safety in an accident-prone zone.

“For me, this has always been about one thing, and that’s safety,” Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said during the event.

“Seeing all the people lining up to turn left at various times; most of the time it’s annoying and it’s frustrating, but far too often it has tragic results.”

“I’ve been here now for eleven years, there have been dozens, literally dozens of serious accidents,” White City Mayor Bruce Evans added.

Those serious accidents often claim lives.

“It’s very hard to put into words how they feel and even how we feel,” Minister Marit said. “All we can say is going forward we’re going to prevent a lot of those fatalities from happening again.”

The new overpass also improves safety for pedestrians, as a pedestrian walkway has been added as part of the Trans Canada Trail.

“We have worked with the trail to incorporate a crossing of the highway so that the trail can wind through White City and then follow Chuka Creek all the way into Regina,” Mayor Evans said.

“It is unique. From what I’ve been told, there are only a couple of crossings of Highway 1 by the Trans Canada Trail in all of Canada.”

The next milestone for the project will be the completion of Phase One by October 31, 2017.

“That will be everything at the east end, other than the Pilot Butte overpass,” Regina Bypass Partners’ Technical Director Alan Shopland said.

The rest of the Regina Bypass Project remains on-budget and on-schedule for completion in 2019.