It appears the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure is ready to unveil its new plan for the truck bypass around Estevan.
The ministry and AECOM, the Regina based engineering firm that is consulting on the project, have scheduled a public open house for June 23 in the multi-purpose room at the Souris Valley Aquatic and Leisure Centre.
Brent Miller with the Ministry of Highways said they will present two new options at the meeting and then allow those in attendance a chance to have their say on which direction the ministry should take.
"We are presenting a couple of options which are different from the original plan," said Miller. "In a nutshell, the open house is to prevent these various options - the status quo versus options one and two - and give the people a chance to give us some feedback on what their thoughts are on these routes."
Miller said both of the new options deal with how best to intersect the west end of the truck route with Highway 39. The initial plan called for the intersection to be located near the Pioneer Grain Terminal, however there were a number of concerns raised about the safety of the intersection due in large part to its proximity to the terminal and the adjacent train tracks.
Miller said the original design would also have prevented James Richardson Inc., the company that owns Pioneer Grain, from any future expansion of the terminal.
"If we keep the truck route at its current location, it doesn't enable them to expand the capacity of their facility," said Miller. "There were issues with safety as well and also looking at the long-term plan of building a future interchange. All of that stuff was considered and will be presented at the open house."
Miller added that both of the new options move the intersection further away from the grain terminal.
"Options one and two connect with Highway 39 a little further northwest and provide a little more spacing for rail cars to be loaded and unloaded and there is not as much delay time where the trains are blocking the roadway," he said.
"The stakeholders did show a preference to option one. They both work but they prefer option one. It provides a little more room for the facility to load and unload cars than option two. Option two is a little more tighter but it is doable. The status quo, they were not too satisfied with that and obviously that is what led to them looking into these other options."
Miller said the ministry is hopeful the meeting will be the first step towards finalizing a route and said if there are any further issues it could lead to an even longer delay.
"With this change in the west terminal, it results in an amendment to our functional design but before we can do that we have to make sure that everyone is OK with it including the key stakeholders and the public. If there is resistance from the vast majority of the public, it may result in us going back to the drawing board and trying to figure out some more solutions."
The truck route was also expected to be the main topic of conversation Tuesday when Mayor Gary St. Onge and Councillor Dennis Moore were in Regina to meet with Highways Minister Jim Reiter.
St. Onge said he would be asking the minister if the environmental study on the truck route has been started and when they can expect to see construction begin.
Asked about his reaction to the news a public meeting was called, St. Onge said he had not been informed about the open house and will ask the minister why.
"I'll bring that up (Tuesday), why they didn't let me know," said St. Onge. "(The meeting) is good in one way but does that mean now they have to take this information from the open house back and study it for three months? I hope not."
St. Onge added he will also ask Reiter about the twinning of Highway 39 to Regina and the Urban Highway Connector Program.
