Forget about twinning Highway 39 for now. These past few days motorists are just interested in knowing when they get to drive on this major commercial throughway again thanks to recent devastating floods.
The Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure said Tuesday morning that remedial work on the highway's bridge spanning the Souris River south of Estevan will continue for another week and a half to two weeks, depending on weather conditions and other factors.
Turnbull Excavating of Estevan has been contracted to do the work that consists of placing fill against the south bridge abutment to stabilize the slope. The company has built a working pad so workers and equipment can gain better access to the bridge's southern side.
The cost of the project has not been determined yet.
The Ministry closed the bridge to highway traffic on the afternoon of July 18, after an assessment was made, and it was determined that significant erosion had occurred on both the north and south side bridge supports. The erosion was due to the extremely high water levels in the river during the floods that were created when excess water needed to be released from both Boundary and Rafferty Dams.
Highway 39 will remain closed from the Junction with Highway 18 to the Canada-United States border while the repairs are ongoing.
At the same time, the Ministry is still attempting to find a contractor to do some Highway 39 elevation work on a one kilometre stretch of the highway west of Macoun.
The grade raise work will see the highway's driving surface lifted by 0.6 metres which should eliminate the current problem of excess water coming over the highway which has reduced traffic to one lane for several weeks. The traffic flow is currently being controlled by Highways and Infrastructure flag personnel.
The Ministry announced last week they hoped to get a contractor signed on and approved by the latter part of that week, but have not been successful so far. At the time it was estimated that the work would take about one week and that the highway between Estevan and Weyburn would be closed for that construction period once the project began.
The Ministry's recent release noted that they intend to warn motorists in advance before the Estevan-Weyburn closure takes place.
Commercial trucking operators are being redirected away from the Highway 39 customs port at North Portal in Saskatchewan and Portal North Dakota during the bridge rebuilding project with temporary commercial customs services being set up at the Northgate border crossing. That crossing is open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. That service will be revoked once the Highway 39 access at Portal is reopened.
Non-commercial traffic is still being accommodated as usual at the Highway 47 border crossing south of Estevan leading to Noonan, North Dakota.
The other 24-hour ports of Dunseith, N.D. to the east of Portal and Raymond, Montana to the west of Portal are being designated as the alternate travel routes for United States commercial traffic during the Portal closure.
