Saskatchewan Highway 16 - Divided Highway

Divided Highway

Canada is one of the only industrialized countries without a federally funded highway system...Recent federal policy changes have meant that freight, which was moved by rail, is now being moved by road. This has placed enormous stress on our roads. A strong national roads system is essential to the transfer of goods and services across this country._{Highways and Transportation Minister Judy Bradley}

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held August 24, 2000 when 10.7 kilometres (6.6 mi) of the Yellowhead highway were twinned in the summer of 2000 between Lashburn and Marshall. East of Marshall, the highway connected to the already twinned section. Grading will begin to twin another 16.2 kilometres (10.1 mi) section of highway between Lashburn and Maidstone in 2000, with the paving of this section completed in 2001. Highways and Transportation Minister Maynard Sonntag commented that

twinning on the Yellowhead Highway will help to save lives, along with improving driver safety and comfort...We are on track to meeting our twinning commitment for the national highway system._{Highways and Transportation Minister Maynard Sonntag}

The four-lane twinned highway between Saskatoon and North Battleford was officially opened December 8, 1997 by Highways and Transportation Minister Judy Bradley and Federal Transport Minister David Collenette. $42.4 million was spent on this twinning creating

92 kilometres (57 mi) of new highway, a new bridge over the north Saskatchewan River near Borden and a new railway underpass. - _{Government of Saskatchewan}

Construction of these improvements cost $42.4 million. The Strategic Highway Improvement Program (SHIP) was a program between the federal and provincial government to upgrade highways with a main focus over five years to twin this section of the Yellowhead. By 2012 the Yellowhead is to be twinned from Saskatoon to the Alberta border. $164 million has been allocated for the two national highways in Saskatchewan, to finish twinning the Trans-Canada Highway 1 and to twin the Yellowhead between North Battleford and Lloydminster by the Federal and provincial governments on March 5, 2003.