Shown, left to right: Murray Mitchell (RM of Round Valley), Ryan Sernecky (Town of Unity), Saskatchewan Minister of Highways and Battlefords MLA Jeremy Cockrill, Jason Skinner (North West Terminal), and Ryan Domotor (MLA for Cutknife-Turtleford) at the ribbon-cutting ceremony in Unity on Friday. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Infrastructure upgrades

Province announces $5.6M Hwy. 21 bypass in Unity nearly complete

Aug 12, 2022 | 4:00 PM

Highway 21 at Unity is seeing major improvements for a $5.6-million bypass project to improve safety and infrastructure in the area, and also help with economic growth.

The two-kilometre bypass will include grading and asphalt surfacing work, as well as the construction of one kilometre of additional service roads, according to the province. The work will involve re-aligning a portion of the highway north of the Highway 14 intersection.

The project is expected to be complete by the end of August.

Saskatchewan Minister of Highways and Battlefords MLA Jeremy Cockrill announced the project funding at a special ribbon-cutting ceremony outside North West Terminal Ltd. in Unity on Friday.

“Really what the project is all about is improving access to the North West Terminal, but also moving Highway 21 further east from town which will make traffic in and of the town of Unity a lot safer,” he said.

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Cockrill said Highway 21 used to run right through a residential area so the new bypass will help divert heavy traffic to increase safety and efficiency for residents, as well as industry personnel and producers accessing it.

“We want to make that stretch of road safer for the residents of Unity and people traveling through the area,” he said. “That’s what this bypass does achieve.”

The minister added the North West Terminal is planning an expansion and anticipates increase traffic in the future. So the project will particularly benefit it as well.

“They are going to be building a triple-loop track here,” Cockrill said. “It’s really exciting to see the growth of not only just typical ag exports that we are used to seeing in Saskatchewan, but also the value-added processing potential here at North West Pier, and then further down the road with potential tenants at this site.”

Jason Skinner, CEO of the North West Terminal based in Unity, said the Highway 21 bypass will allow the company to develop what will be known as the Unity Railport, which will be used as a processing and transportation hub in the future.

“We’ll have an entrance that comes off of that road with proper acceleration and turning lanes,” he said. “So it will increase safety and it will improve access to the site… We’re looking at doing our access road to attach to the highway probably next spring and summer.”

The Highway 21 project also has a partnership component involving the Town of Unity, the RM of Round Valley, and the North West Terminal, along with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways.

The RM and the town each put in $100,000, and the North West Terminal supplied all the fill for the road, and then the Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways is covering the rest of the cost of the project as the major funder.

RM of Round Valley councillor, Murray Mitchell, said the project is great news for everyone.

“It will relieve a lot of truck traffic on the Highway 14 turnoff,” he said. “There is a lot of traffic on Highway 14, so the [the Highway 21 bypass] will relieve a lot of that pressure.”

Town of Unity councillor, Ryan Sernecky, said he is also thrilled with the work.

“We’re excited [with] this project. It will get that big traffic out of Unity… So we’re happy to see this happening.”

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW