The City of Saskatoon’s road construction season is coming to a close, and despite the pandemic, the General Manager of Transportation and Construction considers it to have been a successful one.
Terry Schmidt points to a couple of larger projects being completed, like the Sid Buckwold Bridge rehabilitation which finished 2 months ahead of time, and the replacement of aging water mains , in particular on 8th Street, Clarence Avenue and Avenue C.
He estimates around 19 kilometres of water mains and sanitary sewer mains were replaced or rehabilitated.
The pandemic did hold up one project, though.
There were plans to replace lead water service connections in Caswell Hill, Riversdale, and Nutana , but that would have required workers to enter homes, so it was decided to postponed that until next year, because of COVID-19 safety considerations.

Schmidt adds that there were no life-threatening incidents in the orange zones this year in the city.
He realizes there was less traffic on the road at the beginning of the roadwork season because of the pandemic, but believes it’s also because drivers are getting the message through their annual safety zone campaigns.