The Regina bypass project (reginabypass.ca)

By Glenn Hicks

infrastructure priorities

Traffic figures show P.A.bridge a bigger priority than Regina project: PCP

Dec 4, 2019 | 6:48 PM

The Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan (PCP) says the vehicle numbers for the new Regina bypass highlight the $2 billion project is just “a monument to the Sask Party,” and a second bridge for Prince Albert is a bigger priority.

On learning the average daily volumes for the new project, PCP leader Ken Grey said the government went beyond its means and suggested they bought “a Cadillac version” of a project when it should have been tailored to suit economic realities.

“At the end of the day the government and taxpayers of Saskatchewan got took and the people of Prince Albert, who have waited over a decade, are still waiting for a bridge …,” Grey told paNOW. “There are so many other infrastructure projects needed like hospitals in this province, and we really bit off more than we could chew with the [Regina bypass.]”

The Ministry of Highways released figures for the bypass showing around 6,200 vehicles per day use the new roadways. Officials pointed to the more than 1,200 freight trucks that have been taken off other busy roads in the capital each day, but Grey says the figures are small when stacked up against the traffic volumes on Prince Albert’s Diefenbaker Bridge.

Figures released recently by the City of Prince Albert show anywhere between around 18,000 and almost 30,000 vehicles crossed the bridge daily between May and August this year.

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“I take the bypass on occasion and a lot of times I’m the only vehicle on it,” Grey said. “When you take a look at some of the traffic totals on the Diefenbaker Bridge, that’s another example of a higher need priority that basically got left behind in this process.”

Grey argues had the SaskParty government not been drawn into over-spending on a Brad Wall vanity project, that ended up giving contracts to out-of-province and even out-of-country companies, there could have been funding for both the bypass and a second bridge in P.A.

The provincial government has answered previous criticism from the opposition NDP who called the bypass “the most expensive stretch of flat road in Canadian history, ” by insisting the Regina project brings significant economic, environmental and safety benefits on a local, provincial and national scale.

Deputy Premier Gord Wyant said the bypass, using a public-private partnership model, ended up costing $380 million less than it would have had it been a non-P3 project.

Editor’s note: this story has been amended to make clear the lowest daily vehicular rate on the Diefenbaker Bridge was 18,000 not 8,000 as initially reported.

glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow