While city administration determines whether it’s possible to keep the Coteau Street East bridge, the mayor wants planning for a new bridge on Coteau Street West to receive more attention.
During the May 9 regular city council meeting, Mayor Clive Tolley introduced a motion to have planning for a new bridge connecting Coteau Street West to Thatcher Drive Northwest be referred to upcoming capital budget discussions.
City council has “a huge amount of money” invested in the renovation of the Fourth Avenue (Thunderbird Viaduct) bridge over the next few years, Tolley said. While building a bridge on Coteau Street West is a distant agenda item, he thought more discussions about it needed to happen during capital budget meetings.
“… we’re going to be having more and more homes built in the southwest corner of the city,” he continued. “We continue to get complaints of access off Coteau and Ninth Southwest and I’m thinking if we can start talking about this and get it on the agenda, eventually it could become reality.
“I don’t expect for this to happen quickly, but I just want simply to have a budget discussion.”
If the motion passed, Coun. Heather Eby wondered how this would affect the budget and whether city administration would provide a report with a “high-level number” of the cost.
City hall is looking at having a transportation master plan completed for Moose Jaw because the last one was finalized in 2012, said city manager Jim Puffalt. The possibility of constructing a new bridge on Coteau Street West would be included in the master plan, which the Ministry of Highways would fund through its Urban Highways Connector Program.
“It’s something to ask them to investigate as they do the long-term planning. This is a document that looks out 25 to 40 years. It does population predictions and then gives us a heads-up about where we should go,” he added.
This motion is worth supporting and investigating based on that information, Eby said. While this topic is on the radar for some of the community, she thought “the reality of what it looked like in the budget” would be good for council to understand.
“After hearing that there’s no cost to us and there will be a traffic study, I do think having a high-level estimate will be eye-opening to look at that cost,” said Coun. Jamey Logan. “Everybody wants it, but do we need it? And when we see the cost coming out of that report, that may be too much for some folks.”
Council then voted 5-1 in support of the motion.
Coun. Dawn Luhning was opposed, while Coun. Crystal Froese was absent.
The next regular council meeting is Tuesday, May 24.
