It's smooth sailing for drivers now along First Avenue north, making the two months of traffic inconveniences worthwhile.
Renee Cugnet, Director of Engineering with the City of Weyburn, said with the start of school on Tuesday, it's a bonus the work was completed more than a week ahead of schedule. The work consisted of repaving from Government Road to 13th Street. The project was completed by Genco Asphalt out of Estevan.
"So Government Road to the west side of Fifth Street was milled and paved, with localized deep repairs along the way," she explained. "Then from the Fifth Street intersection all the way to 11th Street, we did a full rebuild so they excavated out the unsuitable road-based materials and rebuilds with geotextiles and new road base before repaving that section. Then they actually did a leveling lift and overlay from 11th Street all the way to 13th Street."
For the section of First Avenue between Government Road and 5th Street, Cugnet said there was enough structural strength to just do a mill and fill.
"We did a few localized deep repairs in some of the soft spots, including the Second Street intersection and some just east of Government Road, but otherwise we had a pretty good road structure to be able to do a mill and fill there."
Paving was completed at the intersection of Fifth Street at First Avenue last week, but it was kept closed over the weekend to finish up line painting and some of the landscaping.
"Unfortunately, there was just a little delay from the rain over the weekend, but it only ended up being about a day or two delay. We were still able to open early earlier than expected."
Cugnet said she's extremely happy with the outcome of the project.
"With such a large project, and a few unplanned underground infrastructure repairs along the way that had to be completed, it went pretty smoothly," she noted. "We had lots of different contractors having to coordinate, and it went really well and on time, so I'm really happy with it."
"I just want to thank the residents and businesses for their patience and cooperation during the construction on First Avenue, as well as during the construction throughout the entire City," she added. "I know we have a lot of construction going on right now, but that's not a bad thing because it means progress towards updating our infrastructure deficit and we can't make these significant improvements without these minor inconveniences, so I just want to extend my thanks for everyone's patience."