WEYBURN - Weyburn city council gave second reading to a bylaw to close the Queen Street rail crossing at Highway 39, but will delay the third and final reading to Jan. 27, as there was a change introduced to the length of the road closure.
The closure will occur to enable the widening of Highway 39 as part of a major project to build a round-about at the nearby intersection of Highways 39 and 13 by the Department of Highways and Infrastructure.
The closure was also welcomed as there have been a number of collisions of vehicles with trains at this crossing, 10 since 2010, the most recent one on Nov. 6.
As Highways has put out a tender for the round-about and awarded it in late December, they have informed the City they wish to have the Queen Street approach removed by March 2025 on the north side of the crossing, before the detours are put in place for Highways 13 and 39 to enable the construction of the round-about to begin.
The original plan was to have Queen Street dead-end at the south property line for A&B Concrete.
The City then received a request from Bill Vollbrecht on Dec. 11 to change the dead-end boundary to Regina Avenue, to restrict traffic and prevent motorists from using his property as a short-cut or for turning around.
The City then sent out a notice to adjacent properties with the revised location of the dead-end at Regina Avenue, and no responses were received.
With the second reading of the bylaw amendment on Monday night, the third and final reading was put off to Jan. 27 to allow for further comments or concerns from residents.
The Ministry of Highways will provide all of the construction services and coordination with CPKC Rail on the south side of the crossing, and will also remove the road on the north side of the crossing, if directed to do so by the City by March of this year.
