Kicking off the first week of May, the City of Regina announces a $118-million investment for transportation, water, wastewater and drainage infrastructure to officially start construction season.
“Investing in municipal infrastructure is critical to the development of our city,” said Mayor Sandra Masters in a media release. “We need to ensure our existing infrastructure is well maintained, while continuing to make strategic investments to support economic growth and building a more vibrant, safe and sustainable community.”
The City said there are some projects that are already underway such as the Winnipeg Street Overpass and North Central Drainage projects. Other projects will begin in May and in the summer and fall. The City’s annual funding for residential road renewal continues with more than $16.5 million to improve 18 kms of residential roads.
“2022 is another busy year with many projects, but during our short construction season, we make every effort to minimize impacts on residents through extensive planning,” said Kim Onrait, Executive Director of Citizen Services. “Our team works collaboratively to coordinate plans, and to balance resources, budgets and priorities. We strive to be efficient and cost-effective while also reducing the impact to residents and drivers.”
Despite external factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic causing the price of construction to go up, the city says they are getting more projects than usual done this year because of the nature of the jobs and this year’s total spending isn’t any more or less than an average year.
“Overall our pricing of contracts is coming in slightly higher from what we are seeing. But the majority of that is due to material increases and that goes back to two years of COVID, plants that were shut down, drainage on inventory or materials,” said Onrait.
There are seven major projects included in this new infrastructure investment. Three major multi-year projects will continue including the Winnipeg street overpass, while a drainage improvement in the northeast and improvement to Lewvan Drive near the airport will be a part of 4 new major projects arising this year.
Continuing multi-year major projects:
Third and final year for drainage improvements in the North Central community – $15M over three years
Second and final year for McCarthy Infrastructure Improvement which includes road renewal in 2022 – $7.9M over two years
Second and final year for rehabilitation of the Winnipeg Street Overpass and modifications to the interchange – $28.8M investment over two years
Northeast Neighbourhood Drainage Improvement Project – $15M over three years
Arcola Avenue Trunk Relining to rehabilitate the sewer – $3.6M
Improvements to Albert Street from 3rd Avenue to 1st Avenue North including road renewal, new signal lights and widened pedestrian sidewalk – $1.6M
Improvements along south and north Lewvan Drive, including road renewal for improved drivability and relocating the turning lane into the Regina Airport to improve safety – $1.5M
“Things like placing your garbage cart at a different location, how do you access your home? That information that comes forward to residents is very important to read that because the street in front of your home, you cannot drive on it. It is being replaced basically with undergrounds so very important for the local residents that live in the area,” said Kurtis Doney, the City of Regina’s Director of Water, Waste & Environment.
Like always there will be disruptions and restrictions to local travel but the city says they are trying to limit those.
“We hear you. The investment is important. There are only so many months per year that this construction can happen and so construction season is rough. But administration is working very diligently to ensure that the disruptions that Regina residents experience are kept to a minimum,” said Mayor Masters.
“Winnipeg street for example sees approximately 15, 000 vehicles per day, Ring Road up to 50,000 vehicles per day, so there could be some significant impacts to commuters and residents in that area. However, that said, we are planning to minimize those impacts by doing some of that work where we need those closures or major restrictions on Ring Road overnight,” said City of Regina Director of Roadways & Transportation, Chris Warren.
After three Regina roads were named to CAA’s worst roads in Saskatchewan list Monday, the spotlight on residential roads has intensified — especially on Mayfair Crescent, which took the top spot.
“I’ve been here since ’86 and I can’t remember any significant work ever being done on the crescent. Anything that they’ve done has been haphazard in nature, like patch on patch on patch,” said Mayfair Crescent resident Darrell Wiks.
The city says the 1 per cent tax implemented for five years starting in 2015 to raise funds for the residential road renewal program is finally starting to bear fruit. That means Wiks won’t have to wait much longer for a revamped road.
“Mayfair Crescent is another project that we’ve planned long before the list came out. It’s going to be a two-year project where we renew the water infrastructure underground in 2022 and then rehab the road in 2023. So we are happy to report that all three of those roads will be getting some attention. Some much-needed attention,” said Warren.
NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Tesla soared Wednesday as investors bet that the electric vehicle maker and its CEO Elon Musk will benefit from Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Tesla stands to make significant gains under a Trump administration with the threat of diminished subsidies for alternative energy and electric vehicles doing the most harm to smaller competitors. Trump’s plans for extensive tariffs on Chinese imports make it less likely that Chinese EVs will be sold in bulk in the U.S. anytime soon.
“Tesla has the scale and scope that is unmatched,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, in a note to investors. “This dynamic could give Musk and Tesla a clear competitive advantage in a non-EV subsidy environment, coupled by likely higher China tariffs that would continue to push away cheaper Chinese EV players.”
Tesla shares jumped 14.8% Wednesday while shares of rival electric vehicle makers tumbled. Nio, based in Shanghai, fell 5.3%. Shares of electric truck maker Rivian dropped 8.3% and Lucid Group fell 5.3%.
Tesla dominates sales of electric vehicles in the U.S, with 48.9% in market share through the middle of 2024, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Subsidies for clean energy are part of the Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022. It included tax credits for manufacturing, along with tax credits for consumers of electric vehicles.
Musk was one of Trump’s biggest donors, spending at least $119 million mobilizing Trump’s supporters to back the Republican nominee. He also pledged to give away $1 million a day to voters signing a petition for his political action committee.
In some ways, it has been a rocky year for Tesla, with sales and profit declining through the first half of the year. Profit did rise 17.3% in the third quarter.
The U.S. opened an investigation into the company’s “Full Self-Driving” system after reports of crashes in low-visibility conditions, including one that killed a pedestrian. The investigation covers roughly 2.4 million Teslas from the 2016 through 2024 model years.
And investors sent company shares tumbling last month after Tesla unveiled its long-awaited robotaxi at a Hollywood studio Thursday night, seeing not much progress at Tesla on autonomous vehicles while other companies have been making notable progress.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 100 points in late-morning trading, helped by strength in base metal and utility stocks, while U.S. stock markets were mixed.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 103.40 points at 24,542.48.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 192.31 points at 42,932.73. The S&P 500 index was up 7.14 points at 5,822.40, while the Nasdaq composite was down 9.03 points at 18,306.56.
The Canadian dollar traded for 72.61 cents US compared with 72.44 cents US on Tuesday.
The November crude oil contract was down 71 cents at US$69.87 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down eight cents at US$2.42 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$7.20 at US$2,686.10 an ounce and the December copper contract was up a penny at US$4.35 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 200 points in late-morning trading, while U.S. stock markets were also headed higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 205.86 points at 24,508.12.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 336.62 points at 42,790.74. The S&P 500 index was up 34.19 points at 5,814.24, while the Nasdaq composite was up 60.27 points at 18.342.32.
The Canadian dollar traded for 72.61 cents US compared with 72.71 cents US on Thursday.
The November crude oil contract was down 15 cents at US$75.70 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down two cents at US$2.65 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was down US$29.60 at US$2,668.90 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents at US$4.47 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2024.
