Saskatoon Roads & Infrastructure

[Corndogger]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

I don’t know how much property acquisition costs. If it’s low, though, I will rather the west branch of Circle Drive be converted to freeway. For 11-16/Circle Drive interchange, we only need to expropriate properties on the west side to put in a fly-over from Circle Drive eastbound to 11-16 northbound, a loop from 11-16 southbound to Circle Drive eastbound. This is to ensure that the movement between the west branch of Circle Drive and 11-16 North(West) are uninterrupted. In fact, after the Airport Drive interchange (according to my proposal), the freeway lanes should just be elevated all the way until Highway 11-16. Meanwhile, intersections with Marquis Drive for both routes will be replaced with interchanges too, and likewise with 16 & 394 at the southeast corner.

If Edmonton has the gut to turn Highway 16 into a freeway in a very built up environment, I don’t see why not Sasktoon can’t do it either. In fact, as a digression, for Regina Bypass, I wish the province just took out a few properties along Victoria Avenue and threw a few interchanges in.

Personally, I really don’t like the freeway plan because it takes out quite a bit of environmentally sensitive land. Anyway, time to start a new thread for this new ring road?

I believe Highway 16 through Edmonton is only going to have an 80 km/h speed limit because there isn't space to have proper merge and exit lanes. If Saskatoon is in the same boat then it makes sense to build a new freeway. Time is money in the transportation industry. Having better roads will help to attract distributors, etc. If Saskatoon already had a freeway bypass they could do what Edmonton is doing.