RM’s ability to access affordable gravel resources, identifying best
management practices that could be adopted into current gravel
management programs to ensure efficient use of the resource and
development of recommendations to steer towards long-term grav-el
reserves for RMs.
Gravel is an important non-renewable resource necessary for in-frastructure
construction and maintenance. Saskatchewan RMs are
responsible for the construction and maintenance of approximate-ly
162,000 kilometres of road; average annual gravel requirements of
RMs are 20,356 cubic yards. Approximately 90 per cent of the grav-el
use in Saskatchewan is for the purpose of road construction and
maintenance. Costs associated with maintaining, upgrading and
building new roads comprise the largest part of an RM’s budget. This
road network is important infrastructure that contributes to the
economy and provides benefits to all of Saskatchewan’s residents.
In September 2017, SARM contracted a consulting firm in part-nership
with an engineering firm to develop a municipal aggregate
resource manual. To date, the consulting firm has met with SARM
planning, engineering and legal teams to gather input. Meetings have
been conducted with external groups including agriculture, private
companies, highway and government relations. Additionally, RMs
have been surveyed and a discussion on gravel with a cross section
of RMs (about 23 people present) was facilitated at the November
2017 Midterm Convention. The project is on target and should be
ready to present at the SARM Annual 2018 Convention to be held in
Regina in March 2018.
Nine-month primary
In July 2017, the Government of Saskatchewan announced changes
to implementation of nine-month primary highways. The new pol-icy
change takes into account the climatic differences in the north
and the south of the province while also maintaining the original
intent of providing primary weight access for economic activities.
In the north of the province, the annual weight increase on the
nine-month primary highways will remain unchanged from July 1 to
March 31 of the following year. In the south of the province, the an-nual
weight increase on the nine-month primary highways will oc-cur
earlier, from June 15 to March 15 of the following year.
Terry Hoeving is the programs manager for infrastructure at
the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities.
SASKATCHEWAN ASSOCIATION OF RURAL MUNICIPALITIES
Costs associated with
maintaining, upgrading
and building new roads
comprise the largest part
of an RM’s budget.
ASPHALT
Commercial • Industrial • New construction • Re-construction
Asphalt overlays • Asphalt plant & supply
AGGREGATE
BLS ASPHALT INC.
P.O. Box 1427, 327 Mill Street
Regina, SK S4P 3C2
Office: (306) 775-0080
Fax: (306) 775-2267
operations@blsasphalt.com
Crushing & Hauling
For more information visit
www.blsasphalt.com
Excavating • Grading
Sub-division • Parking lot • Rural
48 Think BIG | Quarter 1 2018 | saskheavy.ca