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It’s finally time to start fixing several major roads in Saskatoon.
Monday marked the unofficial kickoff to road construction season in the city, with the closure of the Spadina Crescent Bridge for repairs.
Circle Drive North is second on the city’s to-do list — and businesses there are bracing for a summer of disruption.
Starting the week of May 24, repaving and curb repairs are to begin on the eastbound lanes between Alberta Avenue and Millar Avenue. The project is expected to be completed in August.
The project will test the patience of drivers and business owners like Quinn Brown with Quinn and Kim’s Flowers.
“We understand the roads have got to get repaired and they are in bad shape and nobody likes driving on that,” Brown said.
“I’m thankful that it’s after Mother’s Day. We did have a year where (city crews) did construction during the week of Mother’s Day and that was not good for us,” added Brown, noting the week leading into Mother’s Day traditionally is the store’s busiest time of the year.
According to the city, one lane in each direction will remain open during construction, but traffic will be slow moving.
While Brown can’t wait to make the daily drive to work without having to deal with rough road conditions, he’s not thrilled about the city’s four-month timeline.
“If they could cut the timeframe down, I would be a lot happier,” he said. “But I understand it’s a means to make it a better road experience out there.
“We’ll try and just push through it. I’ll make adjustments maybe if I see from week to week that it’s affecting walk-in traffic.”
Circle Drive landed at No. 6 on CAA’s Worst Roads campaign this year.
Burke Barber, manager at FFUN Motor Sports, says a lot of people don’t realize just how poor the conditions of the road are.
“It’s so overdue. The road is so deteriorated. We’re on the south side and the road in front of us especially is just horrible,” Barber said.
“I drive a pickup truck and every time I leave work it’s just the same thing. You’ve got to do like 20 (kilometres per hour) and it’s just ‘boom, boom, boom, boom.’ ”
Even though traffic is projected to slow down over the next few months, Barber knows this is the right thing to do for the City of Saskatoon.
“I watch out the window every single day and the traffic down here, there’s semis, there’s literally farm tractors, endless vehicles. I would say it’s bigtime overdue,” Barber said.
Barber says the big businesses on Circle Drive are going to be just fine. He does feel for the fast-food restaurants on the street, as people may be steered away from business due to time constraints.
“I can definitely see that more as (fast food) is more of an impulse-type thing, but as far as Home Depot, I still think guys are going to be showing up at that location,” Barber said.