Dry weather makes for productive construction season in Saskatoon
The City of Saskatoon says it will finish all its construction projects this year on time, and on budget thanks to the summer's dry weather.
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The City of Saskatoon says it will finish all its construction projects this year on time and on budget thanks to the summer’s dry weather.
“This year we saw one of the most productive construction seasons we’ve seen in recent history,” general manager of transportation and construction Terry Schmidt said on Monday.
“Often times weather is one of the biggest challenges, with scheduling and delays and coordinating the work, but this year the weather was so favourable for construction, it wasn’t one of the big issues that caused challenges.”
This being the second year of construction during the COVID-19 pandemic, Schmidt said COVID protocols didn’t have too much of an impact.
“There were COVID protocols in place to protect the workers, both contractors and city staff on the projects. So we already had a year to implement those,” Schmidt said.
The city spent approximately $65.5 million on construction projects in 2021. Major road projects included the resurfacing of College Drive eastbound between Central Avenue and the edge of the city — a four-week project. The city also did work on the Circle Drive overpass at Eighth Street.
In total, work was done on 207 kilometres of roads this year, according to the city. In addition, 28 kilometres of sidewalks were improved this summer — the same distance as Saskatoon to Osler.
“The sidewalk repair program involves several city departments who have been working collaboratively to prioritize and make significant improvements to management and execution of repairs,” Schmidt said.
Crews spent time in Nutana, Caswell Hill and 20th Street replacing water mains and service connections. Roads excavated during that work then get completely resurfaced and repaved.
Traffic-calming measures — including speed bumps and medians — were also part of the 2021 construction season.
“More than 100 locations received improvements for safety and to improve the flow of traffic,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt said many projects finished early because of the favourable weather, allowing the city to work on tenders earlier than usual, setting the 2022 construction season up well.
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