Planning and behind the scenes work continues with Comtrax, a proposed commodity hub planned for the southeast area. Originally announced in December of 2016, the project is coming along quickly.

Mark Bratrud is a spokesperson for Comtrax. He said as of late, they have been in a bit of a holding pattern while some work done by third parties gets completed.

“We have Meyers Norris and Penny working on a feasibility study that we’re expecting sometime here before the end of October,” Bratrud said, naming one of the parts of the project underway.

The land needed for the project has also been secured, an area east of Weyburn. Bratrud said they have an option agreement on roughly 800 acres of land along the CP Rail line with about 12,000 feet of track frontage.

Another key hurdle which needed to be completed was the environmental study on the site. The year-long study was recently wrapped up and has been submitted to the proper channels for approval.

The engineering is underway with AECOM working on the drawings. It is roughly 30 percent complete, with CPR engineering staff also looking at the projects to ensure they will be good to go.

“It’s going a little bit slower than we would like, but we hope to hear back from them soon,” Bratrud said.

The regulatory process with the rural municipality has also been completed. Hearings were held last spring on the project at the R.M. level, and the council approved the rezoning of the land into a holding zone, slated to be heavy industrial, allowing Comtrax to begin making plans.

The plan for Comtrax is to start the work on the project in the spring. The commodity hub would provide transportation for products such as grain, crude oil, aggregates and many other products.