Saskatchewan mayors say CAA’s Worst Roads Campaign helps speed up repairs

Some mayors in small Saskatchewan communities say CAA’s annual Worst Roads Campaign has helped get the bad roads in their communities get the fixes they desperately need.

In 2014, Highway 24 at Leoville was named the worst road in the province.

“There (were) potholes. The pavement would breakup every spring and every year they would patch it up,” said Leoville Mayor Ron Craswell, who was a member of the town council when CAA released its worst roads list in 2014.

“Before they finished up last fall, it would take us 45 minutes to get 20 miles away. It was just awful. The one guy with the tire business, (in town), he had never been so busy with replacing tires and wheel alignments.”

According to Craswell, repairs on the road were officially finished last year. He said it took a while to get the work completed, but the end result was a good one.

Highway 8 going north from Moosomin to Rocanville took the top spot in this year’s Worst Roads Campaign. Some mayors who spoke with 650 CKOM say the survey posted by CAA every year does help get bad roads fixed. (Larry Tomlinson/Submitted)

“It was in the plan to get it done, but it’s never fast enough. Working with government procedures and stuff, it’s like a big ship in the ocean. It takes a little while to turn, but eventually it turns,” Craswell explained.

“It took a while to get it it, but now everybody is happy with driving out of town. You aren’t fearing of wrecking your vehicle or getting a flat tire.”

Because Saskatchewan has more than 250,000 kilometres of roadways, Craswell said he understands why it took a little time for the province to get the necessary repairs completed.

He said he thinks the freshly repaired road will bring more traffic to Chitek Lake, now that it’s safe to travel in that direction.

Highway 322 in Silton was on CAA’s list of Saskatchewan’s 10 worst roads from 2015 to 2017.

Mayor Murray Wild said the issues were taken care of rather quickly after news about the sorry state of the highway was shared in CAA’s campaigns.

“Silton is at the extreme east end of it, and (the work was) completed in short order within a couple years,” Wild said.

“The road was extremely bad. A roofing truck actually got stuck in the middle of the highway – that’s how bad it was. The highway was done in four segments over five to six years, I think.”

Wild mentioned the highway is very drivable now, and he has no complaints regarding the current status of the road.

“I think the (campaign) absolutely works,” he said. “I don’t think any government likes that negative press. It certainly doesn’t hurt.”

Highway 8 going north from Moosomin to Rocanville was deemed the worst stretch of road in this province in this year’s campaign.