Why a late start is contributing to Saskatoon’s busiest construction season ever

Get used to slow traffic and plenty of detours as construction season begins in Saskatoon. Keenan Sorokan reports.

Saskatoon could experience its busiest construction season ever this year.

At the city’s regular business meeting on Wednesday, Terry Schmidt, the general manager of transportation and construction, said a number of contributing factors are coming together this spring and summer to make for an unusually busy construction season.

“This is going to be one of the busiest construction seasons, if not the busiest construction season we’ve ever had in the city on record,” Schmidt said.

Two major projects are clogging up a significant amount of traffic and contributing to traffic bottlenecks in other parts of the city — Link construction and a sewer pipeline replacement.

The city is pushing to meet its launch date in the fall of 2028 to have Link — the city’s new transit program — up and running. The centrepiece of the project is taking shape along College Drive where dedicated bus lanes are being built in addition to a series of repairs to the 110-year-old University Bridge.

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College Drive from Clarence to Cumberland Avenue will be reduced to one lane of traffic in each direction all summer once the bridge reopens to one lane of traffic in each direction in mid-June. University Bridge will remain that way until August.

To further prepare for Link, another 40 or so station platforms will be built this year or in 2027.

If that project wasn’t enough activity, the city’s biosolids pipeline project has been creating quite a stink on the north side of the city.

Work to replace two sewage pipelines running underground from the city’s wastewater treatment plant in Silverwood Heights to a series of lagoons in the RM of Corman Park has been happening around the clock since late April and will continue until November. Night work will continue until mid-July.

The pipelines, constructed in 1984 and 2005, are in poor condition and need replacing. This has closed a section of Wanuskewin Road, with a full closure of the road in August on Wanuskewin Road north of Marquis Drive once the pipes are ready to be installed.

On the other side of the Chief Mistawasis Bridge, road work along McOrmond Drive between Kerr Road and Addison Road has caused traffic delays as well. Near Stonebridge, work along Circle Drive South is also affecting traffic, albeit much of the work is happening between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.

“I think we’re seeing some of the more major corridors impacted earlier in the construction season, maybe more concentrated than we’ve seen in some of the past years,” Schmidt said.

The largest factor impacting all of this work is the weather. With a lingering winter and multiple freeze-thaw cycles, the spring construction season was delayed by roughly two weeks. Work that was scheduled to begin earlier, along with a doubling of reported potholes, is all happening at the same time as the major construction projects that were already slated to be on the books all-season long.

“There are some more major projects this year that are definitely adding to our typical construction program, but we are also seeing some large water and sewer projects as well in some of the neighbourhoods that can take weeks or even months to complete,” Schmidt said.

The most prominent water main work is happening along Acadia Drive. A public service announcement on Wednesday from the city “strongly urged” east side residents to avoid outdoor water use until water restrictions lift on June 1. While work continues, the city says the restrictions in place and limited water usage are essential to keep water pressure as steady as possible during construction.

When you add all the projects together, in addition to the typical summer construction work happening across the city, the 2026 construction season may be remembered for how busy it began.

“We probably saw more projects starting up at the same time,” Schmidt said. Other seasons we maybe see them being scattered a little bit in their start ups, and this year I think we saw more of a concentrated start up."