Saskatoon business owners along Circle Drive concerned as construction season nears

The City of Saskatoon will start construction on Circle Drive North this month and nearby business owners are preparing for traffic headaches.

“This is a matter of is it going to be easy for customers to come in or not,” said owner of Ink House, Nihil Shah.

Ink House, a printer ink and supplies store, has been located on Circle Drive North for more than seven years, and Shah says the heavy traffic has always been an obstacle for customers.

“Usually on Circle Drive it's just so much traffic right, so whenever there is construction, we're just concerned about customers getting into our store,” he said.

“It's just it's really hard for customers to use any of the businesses, right, just because of the traffic. It's hard to change lanes, etc.”

The city is planning $65 million worth of road construction this summer, with concrete repairs, median work, and resurfacing between Alberta Avenue and Millar Drive on Circle Drive North expected to take two months to complete.

“We thank you for the patience,” said City of Saskatoon general manager of transportation & construction Terry Schmidt last week.

“This work will take time, there are always disruptions to traffic when we are doing work.”

Across the street at Source Office Furnishings, account executive Dave Metz is hoping construction happens as quickly as possible.

“We're not right on a main intersection, so availability and accessibility to our store is a little bit concerning,” he said.

“If they block off one side or both sides, and I think that's what they're doing, it's going to be a tough maneuver to get into our parking lot to actually get to the store.”

Shah would like to see construction done at different times of the day to avoid disrupting traffic any further.

“They should do work over the weekends or evenings,” he said. “That way businesses can run from nine to five and it’ll be easy for customers to come in and then business can still operate as normal.”

“Closing one lane, that is like traffic for three hours extra.”

Neither Metz or Shah were surprised to learn that Circle Drive came in at number six on the CAA’s list of the worst roads in Saskatchewan.

“It's like back and forth trying to avoid all the holes and ruts and stuff and it's tough,” said Metz.

“I don't really want to see it on that list of worst roads, so maybe in like a few months time it'll be on the top of the best roads.”