Opinion: Saskatoon Freeway plan a remnant of rejected urban thinking (2024)

When the idea of a highway around Saskatoon surfaced more than 20 years ago, it was supposed to be just that — a bypass. But by the time the province got serious about the project in the 2010s, the city’s ambitions had expanded beyond the proposed alignment.

Thus was born the Saskatoon Freeway, 55 kilometres of high-speed, high-volume traffic that will drive not just around but through the city of Saskatoon.A glance at the regional land use map makes the problem clear.

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From the point where the freeway swings away from Highway 11 on the southeast edge of the city, all the way to its connection with Highway 16 in the west, the route slices through areas that are zoned for urban commercial/industrial development and for future neighbourhoods.

Thousands of people will live and work along the highway’s path.

The Swale Watchers have long been concerned about the proposed route of the freeway, especially in the northeast sector of Saskatoon. The recently released functional planning study for this quadrant (Phase 2 of the Saskatoon Freeway) has intensified our alarm.

Saskatchewan Highways’ plan calls for a river crossing less than a kilometre north of Chief Mistawasis Bridge, a proposal that is questionable in itself.

To get there, the freeway must cut through both the Northeast Swale and the Small Swale, two of the highest quality corridors of natural grasslands and wetlands remaining in our region.

Together, the swales support more than four dozen “species of conservation concern,” making them super-abundant hotspots for biodiversity.If you were thinking these special places would get a break in plans for the freeway, sorry, think again.

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To accommodate anticipated traffic in this built-up urban context, Saskatchewan Highways is calling for the freeway to expand from its standard configuration of four lanes to eight lanes through the Northeast Swale and 10 through the Small Swale.

The damage this brutal intrusion will cause is documented in the highways ministry’s own reports.But nature and nature lovers are not the only ones at risk. There will also be consequences for future residents of Saskatoon whose neighbourhoods are bisected by this massive, limited-access thoroughfare.

According to a recent report entitled “Freeways Without Futures” from the Congress for the New Urbanism, “the history of urban freeways in North America has been one of inequity and induced demand. Transportation officials built and maintained in-city freeways on the presumed value of high-speed automotive travel through cities no matter the social, economic, and environmental costs.

“That view, still widely held in many Departments of Transportation … is increasingly being contested as the legacy of these highways has indisputably led to inequitable damage in communities and induced demand only making traffic and pollution worse.”

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All around the world, many of the world’s most prosperous and beautiful cities — San Francisco, Seattle and Paris, among others — are removing or redesigning urban expressways, often at eye-watering expense.

Seoul, South Korea, a city in which high-volume thoroughfares were once seen as onramps to economic progress, led the way by demolishing a mid-town freeway and restoring a creek that laid buried under the cement.

This transformation, initiated by a former CEO at Hyundai, has given such a boost to quality of life and investment that the city has taken a hammer to a dozen other expressways, focusing instead on public transit and other alternatives.

To its credit, Saskatoon city council kinda sorta gets it. They have ambitious plans for bus rapid transit and active transportation, together with stated intentions to protect prized natural areas. But Saskatchewan Highways seems to be in the Dark Ages, offering 1950s answers to 21st century challenges.

Saskatoon city council is currently pondering a request from the provincial government to “endorse” the alignment of Phase 2 of the Saskatoon Freeway.

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Although the city cannot stop the highways ministry from proceeding, they could signal dissatisfaction with this disastrous plan. Please write to your councillor. Ask him or her to say no to this Freeway Without a Future.

Candace Savage and Meghan Mickelson are co-chairs of the Swale Watchers, a group of concerned citizens trying to preserve the Northeast and Small swales.

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