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Hawryluk later clarified in a statement that the two sides have worked “collaboratively” to come up with an alternative solution.

What’s been done, what’s still ahead

While Jedlic remains concerned about access to Westerra and connectivity with other new areas in the northwest, he nonetheless thinks the bypass is an important project that “will prove valuable for the next 100 years.

“The bypass is a positive investment in the city’s road network,” he said. “People may take issue with the specific routing, but the overall investment is required for the growth of the city.”

The project aims to reroute trucks away from the city and ease congestion plaguing Victoria Avenue and the Ring Road — reducing emissions and road fatalities in the process. Some sections are already open, like a stretch west of the airport that runs from the section of Hill Avenue there south to the Trans-Canada Highway.

It’s taken nearly five million man hours and 13 million cubic metres of dirt to get to to this point, according to Doyle. The last year of work will add another 200,000 tonnes of asphalt to the 300,000 tonnes already poured.

Photo by TROY FLEECE / Regina Leader-Post

Road foundations are 95 per cent complete, while all 33 bridge decks have been poured. Next year will be time for “finishing and tidy up” on those bridges, according to Doyle.

So far, crews have mostly avoided construction snags, despite Regina’s notoriously shifty clay soil.

Miller connected that to deep digging for better-quality earth.

“Some go as deep as 50 to 55 meters deep,” he said of the pits. “What that allowed them to do is get below the Regina gumbo and get down to the really good till materials.”

Current efforts are focused on Highway 6 and the Dewdney Avenue crossing, with plans to finish both before the end of October. If the weather co-operates, crews will be exactly on schedule.

“They just need three more days and they’re exactly where they want to be,” said Miller.

awhite-crummey@postmedia.com