City of Regina experiencing “backlog” of restoring streetlight power

City of Regina crews are working to address a “backlog” in streetlight repairs, most notably around the Victoria Avenue and Ring Road interchange.

The work near that interchange began in early December, and went through the holidays. City of Regina roadways and infrastructure director Norman Kyle said that “quite a few” of the high mast lights have been repaired and the west-side of the interchange has been fixed.

Kyle said this is the top priority for the backlog due to it being one of the busiest interchanges in the city. Other problem areas on include Ring Road and McDonald Street, portions of Lewvan Drive and Acrola Avenue.

Two main factors are blamed for the issues; aging infrastructure and third-party collisions with underground wiring. Kyle said a contractor involved in the recent construction on the Victoria/Ring Road interchange damaged the lines.

“For Vic and Ring Road they have to put a new conduit and new wiring in to get the other side going,” Kyle explained. “So they have over half of it fixed now, and I would hope that it will be in a week, week and a half that they have the rest of that and then they’d move on.”

According to Kyle, sometimes third party contractors do not inform the city when underground lines are damaged.

Once the work at Victoria Avenue is complete, crews will move to Lewvan, Arcola and then McDonald.

He added that the lights being out at the McDonald/Ring Road interchange are believed to be due to age.

As for a cost, this repair work falls under the department’s general maintenance budget. Kyle said they won’t know a total cost until the work is done, and money can be reallocated from another department if needed.