Highway 1 east of Regina returns to full capacity

After years of construction on Highway 1 east of Regina, traffic will now start returning to normal

The repaving of the highway is complete and the lanes are being fully reopened Monday afternoon.

Stephen Connolly, area three project manager with Regina Bypass, said the westbound lanes of the highway were opened around 2 p.m. with the eastbound lanes being fully opened throughout the afternoon.

“Our team is out there continuing to take off that traffic management so that at the end of the day you’ll have two lanes going in the eastbound and the westbound lanes.”

Connolly said the Balgonie Ramp is at full capacity as of Monday, and the White City ramp will be at full capacity Tuesday. The lights at Tower Road have been removed. He said this means that the eastern phase of the bypass project will be up to full traffic capacity.

Connolly said the goal over the next few weeks is to get the highway back up to 110 kilometres an hour between Balgonie and Regina.

The eastern part of the bypass project is scheduled to be fully operational by Oct. 30.

Regina roadwork to be wrapped up in 3-4 weeks

Many people in north Regina might be thinking “Not again” as the city does work – again – at the intersection of Rochdale Boulevard and Pasqua Street North.

Norman Kyle, the city’s director of roadways and transportation, said the city is completing a paving project from last year, which wasn’t able to be complete as Argyle Road into the Hawkstone neighbourhood wasn’t complete yet.

Roadwork at Pasqua Street North and Rochdale Boulevard backed up traffic in both directions on Sept. 25, 2017. (Sam Maciag/980 CJME)

“We held off on that because it would have been an inconvenience to anyone living in Hawkstone so now that Argyle’s open, we’re back in there finishing paving the intersection,” Kyle said Monday.

He added that paving there should be complete in three days, with all road work expected to be completed in Regina in three to four weeks. That includes the work at Wascana Parkway and Ring Road, a project that was slated to take six months.

“We’re hopeful that it’ll be done a little bit early, maybe a week early or so, but it’s on schedule for completion before the end of October,” Kyle said.

He also explained why it took longer than other projects on Ring Road, like the bridge work at Victoria Avenue, that were done ahead of schedule due to this summer’s good weather.

“It was a little different than the other bridges on Ring Road, just different design, different style,” he said. “That’s why its taken the full six months.”

Kyle said, overall, most of Regina’s roadwork – 60 or so projects – were completed this year. He said some projects – mainly water main work – will carry over into 2018.

— With files from Lauren Golosky