Construction always seems to take longer than it's supposed to from the outside looking in, but the construction on Highway 39 is on schedule to finish by the end of the month, and in some places even ahead of schedule.

"As it is right now, weather's been fairly good overall, contractors are doing a great job progressing the work," said Minister of Highways and Infrastructure Greg Ottenbreit. "Between Weyburn and Estevan, two passing lanes, which is basically one set, is fully paved, and they're waiting to be signed. They're scheduled to be open by the end of the month, and it's the further set south closest to Estevan."

There are still some things that will not be finished this year on Highway 39, but that's because they were never scheduled to be. The highway will be fully completed by the end of 2021 with another two sets of passing lanes between Estevan and Weyburn along with repaving and other safety measures.

Up a little further northeast, the stretch of highway that leads to Moose Jaw is set to start some more construction as well that should be finished this year.

"We also have two passing lanes, which would be one set, between Yellow Grass and McTaggart scheduled for paving next month in September and will be open to traffic shortly after that."

If you think the roads have gotten rough in the areas where the passing lanes have been added, that's common. The plan the province has in place has that exact issue accounted for.

"Quite often when passing lanes are completed, you'll see some additional paving start in between to finish up the road and there's cases where we have to be running some heavy trucks and equipment over the existing road and it takes a bit of a toll on it and by and large that'll be repaired by the completion of the project and then ongoing maintenance the make sure it stays safe." 

Because of the weather being mostly cooperative this summer, the construction on Highway 39 is on target to finish on time and the passing lanes should be ready and open to the public by the beginning of fall or shortly after.  

"Some are even seemingly ahead of time. Our contractors have been doing an amazing job, predominately Saskatchewan contractors, a lot of the time when we need them we're using Saskatchewan sub-contractors, the capacity is there, and they're doing a great job and doing some really, really high quality work as these arteries open. It's really impressive."

Passing lanes have been a big project not just here on Highway 39 in the southeast, but on major highways around the province. Ottenbreit has already been getting calls about them and, aside from the few expected complaints about construction times, feedback has generally been positive.

"Through my local office in Yorkton and even in the Regina Ministry of Highways office, we're getting nice comments with the construction going on and the quality of work and that they like to see our Saskatchewan companies doing the work as well." 

Ottenbreit added, "We're still getting the odd complaint about the traffic delays and things like that, but it's short term pain for long term gain. It's a little bit a test of patience sometimes getting through some of the construction but we want to make sure that people get to their destination without incident and want to make sure that our road crews are getting home safely every night, and we will be able to enjoy this infrastructure moving our economy and moving our citizens safely up and down the highways for decades to come."