Saskatchewan Highway 7 - History

History

The Old Bone Trail was the name of the red river cart trail between Saskatoon and Rosetown. The Saskatchewan Highway Act was established in 1922, in compliance with the 1919 Canadian highway act. At the initial stages of the Saskatchewan Highway Act, 10 miles (16 km) of provincial highways were gravel and the rest were earth roads. The road allowances were laid out as a part of the Dominion Land survey system for homesteading. Travel along the Provincial Highway 7 before the 1940s would have been traveling on the square following the township road allowances, barbed wire fencing and the Canadian Northern rail line. As the surveyed township roads were the easiest to travel, the first highway was designed on 90-degree, right-angle corners as the distance traversed the prairie along range roads and township roads.

Mr. Ralph Glen Chapman an early 1900s settler in Pleasant Valley maintained 10 miles (16 km) of Highway 7. Mr. Block of the German Mennonite settlement at Fiske maintained a stretch of Highway 7 as a means of supplementing his income in the 1930s. In 1939, Andy Anderson in the same fashion, kept a 10 miles (16 km) stretch of Highway 7 clear.

In 1944 the widening of Highway 7 was undertaken. The Elma rural municipality (R.M.) requested that an automatic warning system should be established at the level crossing of the Canadian National Railway and Highway 7. At this same time, the rural municipality requested that the hills be gravelled which are situated on either side of Flaxcombe. The third concern in 1948 was to construct an all-weather highway between Kindersley and Alsask, and this too was requested of the Department of Highways (DOH). In 1950, the rates of pay for roadwork were 60 cents an hour for a single labourer, 80 cents an hour for man and two horses, a labourer with four horses would earn C$1.00 per hour and for man with six horses $1.20 per hour In the 1950s the R.M. provided grants to the local snow plough club to keep the highway clear after storms. The 1951 oil strike at Coleville resulted in a Husky service station and bulk plant opening at Flaxcombe on Highway 7 in 1955. It was located on the railroad to facilitate loading crude oil into rail cars. Highway 7 was rebuilt between 1960 and 1961. Highway 7 currently terminates at its junction with 22nd Street West (Highway 14) in west Saskatoon. In 2005, work began on realigning Highway 7 in order to make way for the Blairmore Suburban Centre development including the Bethlehem High School, Tommy Douglas Collegiate and the Shaw Centre located where Highway 7 linked with 22nd Street prior to 2006. Realignment is being conducted in two phases. Starting in 2006, Highway 7 was linked with Betts Avenue, a new city street, which in turn intersected 22nd Street at a traffic signal. The city and province have begun to build an interchange farther west (but still with the city limits) at the junction of Highway 14 and Highway 684 (Dalmeny Road), at which point the new Highway 7 alignment links with this interchange. Long-term plans call for a link to be created from Highway 684 to the Yellowhead Highway in Saskatoon's north side, though it has not yet been announced whether the Highway 7 designation will be applied north of Highway 14. There are plans for a major construction in 2008-2009 west of Saskatoon on Highway 7.