Kicking off the first week of May, the City of Regina announces a $118-million investment for transportation, water, wastewater and drainage infrastructure to officially start construction season.
“Investing in municipal infrastructure is critical to the development of our city,” said Mayor Sandra Masters in a media release. “We need to ensure our existing infrastructure is well maintained, while continuing to make strategic investments to support economic growth and building a more vibrant, safe and sustainable community.”
The City said there are some projects that are already underway such as the Winnipeg Street Overpass and North Central Drainage projects. Other projects will begin in May and in the summer and fall. The City’s annual funding for residential road renewal continues with more than $16.5 million to improve 18 kms of residential roads.
“2022 is another busy year with many projects, but during our short construction season, we make every effort to minimize impacts on residents through extensive planning,” said Kim Onrait, Executive Director of Citizen Services. “Our team works collaboratively to coordinate plans, and to balance resources, budgets and priorities. We strive to be efficient and cost-effective while also reducing the impact to residents and drivers.”
Despite external factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic causing the price of construction to go up, the city says they are getting more projects than usual done this year because of the nature of the jobs and this year’s total spending isn’t any more or less than an average year.
“Overall our pricing of contracts is coming in slightly higher from what we are seeing. But the majority of that is due to material increases and that goes back to two years of COVID, plants that were shut down, drainage on inventory or materials,” said Onrait.
There are seven major projects included in this new infrastructure investment. Three major multi-year projects will continue including the Winnipeg street overpass, while a drainage improvement in the northeast and improvement to Lewvan Drive near the airport will be a part of 4 new major projects arising this year.
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Continuing multi-year major projects:
- Third and final year for drainage improvements in the North Central community – $15M over three years
- Second and final year for McCarthy Infrastructure Improvement which includes road renewal in 2022 – $7.9M over two years
- Second and final year for rehabilitation of the Winnipeg Street Overpass and modifications to the interchange – $28.8M investment over two years
New major projects:
- Northeast Neighbourhood Drainage Improvement Project – $15M over three years
- Arcola Avenue Trunk Relining to rehabilitate the sewer – $3.6M
- Improvements to Albert Street from 3rd Avenue to 1st Avenue North including road renewal, new signal lights and widened pedestrian sidewalk – $1.6M
- Improvements along south and north Lewvan Drive, including road renewal for improved drivability and relocating the turning lane into the Regina Airport to improve safety – $1.5M
“Things like placing your garbage cart at a different location, how do you access your home? That information that comes forward to residents is very important to read that because the street in front of your home, you cannot drive on it. It is being replaced basically with undergrounds so very important for the local residents that live in the area,” said Kurtis Doney, the City of Regina’s Director of Water, Waste & Environment.
Like always there will be disruptions and restrictions to local travel but the city says they are trying to limit those.
“We hear you. The investment is important. There are only so many months per year that this construction can happen and so construction season is rough. But administration is working very diligently to ensure that the disruptions that Regina residents experience are kept to a minimum,” said Mayor Masters.
“Winnipeg street for example sees approximately 15, 000 vehicles per day, Ring Road up to 50,000 vehicles per day, so there could be some significant impacts to commuters and residents in that area. However, that said, we are planning to minimize those impacts by doing some of that work where we need those closures or major restrictions on Ring Road overnight,” said City of Regina Director of Roadways & Transportation, Chris Warren.
After three Regina roads were named to CAA’s worst roads in Saskatchewan list Monday, the spotlight on residential roads has intensified — especially on Mayfair Crescent, which took the top spot.
“I’ve been here since ’86 and I can’t remember any significant work ever being done on the crescent. Anything that they’ve done has been haphazard in nature, like patch on patch on patch,” said Mayfair Crescent resident Darrell Wiks.
The city says the 1 per cent tax implemented for five years starting in 2015 to raise funds for the residential road renewal program is finally starting to bear fruit. That means Wiks won’t have to wait much longer for a revamped road.
“Mayfair Crescent is another project that we’ve planned long before the list came out. It’s going to be a two-year project where we renew the water infrastructure underground in 2022 and then rehab the road in 2023. So we are happy to report that all three of those roads will be getting some attention. Some much-needed attention,” said Warren.
The City reminds drivers to plan ahead, slow down, drive safe and to visit the Road Report for traffic restrictions.
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