Yea, so for me, (lol speaking as an armchair “engineer”), building a bypass where the current alignment could have been used is wasteful. If I were in charge, I’d have ordered all the buildings around the intersection of AB-16A and Calahoo Road in Spruce Grove torn down and put a single-point interchange there. In fact, in that case, Yellowhead Highway wouldn’t even have been realigned in the first place. Having 2 freeways 3 km apart is simply ridiculous.
Similarly, Regina Bypass was extravagant when all that needed to be done was to completely grade-separate Victoria Avenue (TCH) all the way to Balgonie, building flyovers from TCH W to Ring Road S(W) and from Ring Road S(W) to TCH E, and widening the Ring Road to 6 lanes. A speed limit of 100 kph (allowing 120 kph) should have been attainable. Alas the ship has sailed.
I can only hope that Saskatoon doesn’t repeat the same mistake and instead upgrade the existing Circle Drive West.
Now, for Medicine Hat, I understand the need for a bypass because we also need to take Crowsnest Highway into account.
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At least Kenora sits “in the middle of” Lake of the Woods so tourism doesn’t get hit hard outside of Covid-19. Lol, when I drove east, I saw lots of Manitoban license plates.
For Lloydminster, yea business relocation should be the answer (though the government should chip in a bit too).