Moosomin town council:
Town
proposes
truck bypass
Kevin Weedmark
Moosomin town council reviewed two possible routes for a Highway 8 truck bypass at Wednesday’s town council meeting.
Former councillor Murray Newman, the town’s representative on the Southeast Transportation Planning Committee, drew up plans for two potential truck routes to take Highway 8 truck traffic off Main Street.
One possible route would run south of town and one mile east of the current Highway 8 on existing grid road. It would take truck traffic down Saunders Road, by the Southeast Integrated Care Centre and the Co-op gas station.
The other possible route would run west of town, requiring a section of new roadway to be built.
“Number 8 highway is a market highway,” Newman told council. “You want traffic coming into town, but you don’t want a lot of semis—they’re not going to stop on Main Street anyway.
Councillor Chris Davidson raised concerns about the route that would connect with Highway 1 at the Co-op corner on the east end of town.
“The trucks will be lined up to turn onto Highway 1, and they’ll be backing up traffic by the Co-op and Tim Hortons,” he said.
“If you’ve got six semis lined up to turn onto Highway 1, they’ll be lined up all the way to the old highway. You’ll have cars coming off the highway waiting for a truck to move so they can get in to get gas or get to Tim Horton’s and you’ll have cars lining up behind them.”
He also suggested that the intersection would be unsafe because trucks would be entering the highway at a slow speed, so there would be semis travelling at low speeds and high speeds along the Trans-Canada Highway right at all three highway intersecionts.
“When they turn onto Highway 1, they’ll be going 40 by the time they hit Main Street and 80 by the time they hit the west intersection, Highway 8 north, and you’ve still got trucks going 120 coming up behind them.
Mayor Don Bradley said he believes the main point is to get the truck traffic off Main Street. “I don’t care if you go around Fleming,” he said. “I just want the trucks off Main Street.”
Newman will take the proposals to the Southeast Transportation Planning Committee.
Saskatchewan Highways had proposed an extensive Highway 8 bypass in 2003 as part of Highway 1 twinning plans, but that bypas was never built.
