The City of Moose Jaw has announced that High Street West will be repaired this week to address the rippled surface of the road. This is one of the 48 capital projects approved by city council in the 2023 budget.
Repairs began on Monday, July 24. Craig Hemingway, manager of communications with the City of Moose Jaw, stated, “There will start to be some mobilization of crews (on Monday and Tuesday),” and that they anticipate that the first day of construction is going to be Wednesday.
Road repairs will take place between Second Avenue West and Eighth Avenue West, with the first stage of construction taking place on the 800 block and then working east.
“It’s going to be a couple of days per block, and we’re going to be doing a block at a time,” confirmed Brett Williams, co-owner of Cypress Paving. Cypress Paving has been selected as the contractor for the project.
During construction, traffic will be routed along Fairford Street West with clearly marked detour signage.
The City of Moose Jaw anticipates that the project will be completed in two weeks, but this will depend on possible weather delays. “Right now the forecast is looking sunny and hot,” Hemingway said.
The current repairs will address settling that resulted from the 2018 cast iron project.
“It’s just going to be filling the trenches from the service connections, in the dips that have settled,” said Williams.
“The service connections had settled,” Williams explained. “It’s more the methodology of how it has been completed. It’s happened on all of the cast iron work, (and) the majority of service work that has taken place.”
Residents can expect a far shorter closure this year, as the nature of the work is different from 2018.
“These are two different projects. This project doesn’t involve any underground repair. It’s really just standard milling and paving, which our contractors (Cypress Paving) have been doing in various locations across the city in an efficient and timely manner… This (High Street) will be the same,” said Hemingway.
Williams said that the issue can be largely prevented with better compaction, but a variety of conditions including climate and sub-soil type make any underground repair work prone to settling.
“With better compaction you can minimize it, but it’s something we’ve seen over the last number of years on the cast iron construction. It’s going to happen… with the different soil conditions… around the city,” said Williams.
“We’re going to be milling the edges to try to alleviate any of the joints to make the transition as smooth as we can,” he added.
The previous High Street closure in 2018 severely impacted local businesses and this has some business owners wary.
“Initially, if I remember correctly, it was (supposed to be) a few months, but it went on to over a year or a year and a half,” said Ray Toews, owner of Castle Building Centres, which is located along High Street West.
“People who are in a hurry are going to go elsewhere. That’s something I’ve noticed because everybody seems to be in that mode these days,” he said. “They want to get in and out.”
Toews recalled the impact from the 2018 closure, which he said came with various setbacks including the permanent closure of some local businesses including the Scuba Guys’ Dive Shop.
To compound the issue, he mentioned that the COVID-19 pandemic caused a further setback to local business. “It has been a slow recovery from a lot of it,” he said.
“Hopefully it goes smoother… this time. We need it to be done a lot faster than last time, that’s for sure. We don’t want to go through it again!”
All local businesses located along High Street West will remain open during the current project. Customers are advised that sidewalks will remain accessible throughout the process.
Drivers are reminded to remain cautious in the construction zone and to plan for possible delays.
“We thank residents for their patience while we improve our infrastructure and ask all drivers to please exercise caution around work zones and pay attention and obey all traffic signs. That is for the safety of everybody,” Hemingway said.
