Saskatchewan outlook

[oscar]

Some major changes are coming to Regina this autumn, as completion of the Regina Bypass project looms (expected in October 2019). The most significant change is a reroute of the Trans-Canada Highway off the Ring Road freeway (part is SK 6) and part of Victoria Ave., to the southern segment of the new bypass. Also, SK 11 (covered by the preview cansk system, which I expect will soon become an active system) now includes the already-opened part of the western leg of the Bypass, and probably will be removed from its existing routing east of Regina to the new western Bypass leg once it's completed. Re- (or de-) numbering of existing SK 11 on the east side of Regina TBD.

The relocation of the TCH will leave two segments of the Ring Road freeway (the existing one on the north side of Regina, and part of the existing TCH on the south side) without a route number, barring a last-minute change in signage plans. I would add all of Ring Road, including the part that is now and will remain concurrent with SK 6, to the in-dev cannf system at that point.

[oscar]

Press coverage this week indicates that the unopened parts of the Regina Bypass (still being worked on) will open all at once, with a target of October 31.

A video shows (at 0:15) that the western junction of TCH 1 with the Bypass is already posted as exit 258. AFAIK, that and any other exit numbers will be the first in Saskatchewan.

[oscar]

Per the weekly highway construction update issued by the provincial government, SK 7 bypass of Vanscoy has a completion target of Sept. 30, 2019. This will need followup once opening is confirmed. OSM shows the bypass route.

EDIT: cansk is now an active system. So the upcoming Vanscoy and Regina changes will follow our usual process for updates to active systems, including entries as needed to the Updates table.

Also, local media reports the westbound lanes of the Vanscoy bypass opened to traffic September 23, with the eastbound lanes soon to follow.

UPDATE: The Vanscoy bypass was completed on September 30, as planned. OSM doesn't yet show the bypass as open, and Google Maps doesn't show the bypass at all.

The bypass is now in the HB.

[oscar]

Chris on the AARoads forum passes along this map of new highway routings in Regina following completion of the Regina Bypass. This is from a press release issued last Thursday.

A puzzle is that the map shows highway 6 passing through downtown Regina on Albert St., rather than bypassing downtown on part of the Ring Rd. That's inconsistent with what a traffic engineer for the city of Regina (which maintains Albert St.) told me. The map also doesn't identify any changes to highway 6, but the old routing clearly followed part of Ring Rd. OTOH, the map indicates part of highway 11 on the east side of Regina will become highway 11A, so all of existing highway 11 will remain in the system after 11 is rerouted onto the Regina Bypass west of the city.

The press release has the opening on schedule, at the end of the month. That's consistent with what the PPP consortium building the Bypass has been saying, that the completed Bypass will be open on the date agreed to in its contract with the province, and no sooner.