One Lumsden man is describing his ordeal travelling into Regina late at night as frightening after he got lost and nearly wound up in another town. Now, he’s calling for better signage along the western detour off the Regina Bypass construction.
“It’s really very complex,” said Orest Shasko. “This being a detour, it should have been clearly marked ‘Regina this way.'”
Almost two weeks ago, Shasko was driving his 22-month-old granddaughter to Regina to help her fall asleep. It was around 11 p.m. when he says things took a daunting turn.
“I turned left and ended up going on the grid road towards Pense and realized it was getting darker and darker, and the infant was crying because the gravel was hitting the bottom of the car and making a lot of noise,” Shasko said.
Shasko says the experience was frightening and took about an hour before he was able to follow a truck back into the city.
“There should be signs out there on the grid road west of Regina indicating directions and where you are,” Shasko said.
But Mike Boan, project manager of the Regina Bypass, says this is an isolated incident and is the first complaint he’s received since the bypass opened a month ago.
“We strongly review everything, and these complaints we take very seriously as well because we want to make sure we don’t have a problem,” Boan said. “Things can get missed, but we’ve investigated this one and don’t see an issue, actually.”
Boan adds there are no plans for additional signage, as the process to open a detour is thoroughly reviewed.
“With our contract, we design both temporary and permanent signage to go with the roadways and that all gets vetted through the ministry themselves so anything we design they approve,” Boan said.
It’s a decision Shasko doesn’t agree with and says next time he’ll think twice before driving into Regina.
“I won’t be going through there again. Not at nighttime, that’s for sure,” Shasko said.
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