‘We’ll learn from it and be better next year’: Mayor on Lewvan construction

A summer of frustration for drivers on Regina’s Lewvan Drive will be worth it in the long run, according to the mayor.

More than four months of construction on Lewvan officially wrapped up Tuesday. The $2.9-million project, which involved curb and gutter replacement along with repaving between 11th Avenue and First Avenue, was initially pegged to last 16 weeks starting May 13 and wrapping up by the end of August.

Now that the project is complete a few weeks over schedule — even though the city says it’s on time — Mayor Michael Fougere assured drivers their patience will pay off.

“(Lewvan) will be in good condition for the next 10 to 12 years. The investment is worth it and I think the results we’ll see is a smooth traffic flow down Lewvan,” he said Tuesday.

The project experienced challenges when it came to accommodating access to Evraz Place for big events over the summer, according to Chris Warren, the city’s director of roadways and transportation.

Access to Evraz Place off Lewvan was required for events including two Garth Brooks concerts, the Farm Progress Show, the Queen City Ex and Saskatchewan Roughriders games.

Warren called Lewvan “a very time-consuming, laborious, intensive project” which also ran into delays because of the rain.

“Our crews adapted to that and worked extra hours, worked over the weekends, worked some of the long weekends, some of the holidays that we had throughout that time period to ensure that we met our target as closely as we could,” said Warren.

If there was one big success of the Lewvan construction, it was implementing lane reversals along Lewvan to help with the traffic flow.

“That was in response to the public saying, ‘We’re having a hard time getting downtown and getting home later on,’ so there I thank the administration for thinking a bit outside the box as to how can we actually make this better,” said Fougere.

The mayor said Regina is the first municipality in Canada to use lane reversals during a temporary construction project.

Warren added the city received lot of good feedback on the lane reversals, which drivers may see again on future projects in Regina.

“These are things that we’re definitely going to consider when we’re undertaking other major projects that have the space and the width of the roadway to be able to utilize some of that innovation,” said Warren.

Looking forward to future projects, Fougere said work needs to be done as efficiently as possible and he wants to find more innovative ways to complete them next year.

That includes the idea floated earlier this year to complete roadwork on nights and weekends and maybe even on a 24/7 schedule.

“We learned from this project things we can do better,” said Fougere. “We’ll learn from it and be better next year.”