Passing lanes installed on Highway 2 to improve safety
The Ministry of Highways has opened two new sets of passing lanes on Highway 2 between Prince Albert and Christopher Lake which it says will improve safety.
"Passing lanes offer opportunities for motorists to pass, leading to improved traffic flow and also ensuring everyone gets to their destination safely," said Minister of Highways Fred Bradshaw.
Construction of the eight-kilometre stretch cost $7.5 million and was completed ahead of schedule.
“On this highway you’ll see everything from pulp haulers, to campers to boats being towed, semis going north up to the mines,” said Don Fryk, a local area resident.
“If people use these properly, that’s going to save a lot of tragedy, headaches, time.”
According to collision statistics recorded by SGI, the five year average of collisions on Highway 2 between Prince Albert and Christopher Lake is 55 per year.
The province's first major passing lanes pilot project, Highway 10, shows 75 per cent fewer fatal crashes five years after its completion. Other studies cited by the government report a 25 per cent reduction in collisions on highways with passing lanes.
Still, John Halkett, band councillor of the nearby Little Red First Nation, says he would have liked the stretch made into a twinned double lane highway as on weekends the traffic can be backed up a couple of kilometers.
“You got a passing lane on this side but if you’re heading south you can’t pass on that side. It’s a solid line. So I’m hoping it’s incomplete and will be completed sometime,” said Halkett.
He says members from his community benefited from the project by selling 30,000 yards of gravel used in its construction.
"Highway 2 is such an important corridor for the area and these new passing lanes will benefit so many people through safety and expanded capacity for an ever-growing area,” said MLA for Saskatchewan Rivers Nadine Wilson.
Over the next two years, the Government of Saskatchewan is constructing 30 new sets of passing lanes, building on the 27 sets constructed in the last four years.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Alice Munro, Nobel literature winner revered as short story master, dead at 92
Nobel laureate Alice Munro, the Canadian literary giant who became one of the world's most esteemed contemporary authors and one of history's most honoured short story writers, has died at age 92.
Latest updates on air quality alerts, and when the smoke may reach Ontario and Quebec
Wildfires have led Environment Canada to issue air quality advisories for parts of B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, as forecasters warn the smoke could drift farther east.
Are these Canada's best restaurants? Annual top 100 list revealed
The annual list of Canada's top restaurants in the country was just released and here are the places that made the 2024 cut.
Attack on prison van in France kills 2 officers, inmate escapes
Armed assailants killed two French prison officers and seriously wounded three others in an attack on a convoy in Normandy on Tuesday and an inmate escaped, officials said.
Maximum payout for LifeLabs class-action drops from $150 estimate to $7.86
Canadian LifeLabs customers who filed an application for a class-action settlement began receiving their payments this week, though at a much lower amount than initially expected.
Steal a car, lose your driver's licence for 10 years under new Ontario proposal
Repeat car thieves may face lengthy licence bans under proposed changes to Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act.
$1.6B parts plant for Honda electric vehicle batteries coming to Niagara Region
A Japanese company has announced it will build an approximately $1.6-billion plant in Ontario's Niagara Region that will make a key electric vehicle battery component as part of Honda's supply chain in the province.
B.C. brings in law on name changes on day that child killer's new identity revealed
The BC NDP have tabled legislation aimed at stopping people who have committed certain heinous acts from changing their names.
Manitoba premier to visit areas impacted by wildfire
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew will get a close-up look at the devastation from a large wildfire burning in northern Manitoba Tuesday.