Saskatoon’s perimeter highway concept

The province of Saskatchewan has begun planning for a perimeter highway around Saskatoon. The hope is to allow highway traffic to bypass the city entirely and to alleviate thru city traffic to areas surrounding Saskatoon.

The infrastructure project has no start date and estimates are the project could cost close to $2 billion once the road is complete. This would make it the province’s most expensive project to date.

The project is in the first phase of planning and the provincial highways ministry has established a preliminary route for the north half of the road but the stretch south of highway 5 to it’s intersection with highway 11 is still being determined. The ministry is allocating a path 800 metres wide which will allow some flexibility when it comes time to determine the final route.

An open house is being held tonight in Saskatoon at the German Concordia Club that will allow residents to look at 4 possible routes for the southeast stretch.

The north half of the route was approved by city council on Monday but no land has been purchased as of yet but the RM of Corman Park has agreed to postpone development in an area about the size of Martensville until the southeast portion of the highway is finalized.

There are no locations identified for where the highway would intersect Highway 16 and 11 south of the city. This would also mean that a bridge would be required southwest of the city as well as the one proposed north of the city, near Wanuskewin Heritage Park, to connect the highway entirely in a circle.

No timeline has been estimated at this point for the project.

Kari Calder

Saskatoon real estate agent

Century 21 Fusion

Kari@saskatoonrealestate.net