The City of Moose Jaw is expecting delays when it comes to the Ministry of Highways repairing of Ninth Avenue Southwest from Warner Street and Valleyview Drive to the city limits. 

Coun. Crystal Froese asked for an update on the project during the regular city council meeting on Monday night. 

Director of engineering Bevan Harlton said the city had been working with the Ministry of Highways to set a date for an open house in order to move forward with the project. However, the Ministry of Highways has since discovered an archaeological area of significance west of the roadway. 

Harlton said the delay caught the city off guard because the city thought the ministry knew about the archaeologically significant area months earlier. 

“This is something that city engineers and the director of parks actually notified the Ministry of Highways about in March, so we were surprised to see the project was delayed at this late hour, given our previous communications,” he said. 

Harlton added that the city is expecting that the work will be tabled until next year, but they are awaiting formal notification. 

City manager Maryse Carmichael said a request has been put in to have the ministry start at least some of the repairs on Ninth Avenue Southwest. 

“It’s probably important to note that we’ve requested that the Ministry of Highways proceed with some work on the road itself, not on the slope. But it’s important that the director of engineering made the request to the Ministry of Highways to at least take care of a portion of the road,” Carmichael said. 

Ninth Avenue Southwest is part of the province’s Urban Highway Connector Program, which sees the Ministry of Highways fund repairs to roads connecting to highways. 

Ninth Avenue Southwest has had sloping issues for many years and, according to the city, the province has been monitoring the situation as far back as 1997. 

The Urban Highway Connector Program was launched by the province in 2008 to provide a transparent and consistent framework to support the equitable management of urban connector roads.  

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