It's only a few days over schedule but with only a few final touches to go, the Highway 39 Twinning Project near Bienfait is almost at an end.

"The construction is nearing completion," explained Steve Shaheen, with the Ministry of Highways, "on Highway 39 twinning east of Estevan to Bienfait."

"They're still working on the finishing touches and that would include things like pavement marking and signing. The pavement marking is expecting to be completed later this week. Again, all of this is weather permitting and we've been hit with a bit of a blast of winter. The signing is anticipated to be installed early next week at which time it will be open to traffic."

"The contractor has completed all paving. All the work on Highway 18 is complete and open to traffic. Traffic is diverted onto the newly twinned Highway 39 lanes of the new junction with Highway 18. And construction of the new service roads utilizing the existing eastbound lanes of Highway 39 is ongoing. So things are coming along really, really well."

He mentioned that this stretch was a priority for the Ministry of Highways to complete. 

"It is a busy area. Highway 39 is one where it crosses into the United States, international borders so there's a fair amount of truck traffic there. That area, there's over 6000 vehicles per day so it is a busy stretch road."

"It's always good, this time of year, we start wrapping up projects for the season and it has been a really good construction season weather-wise and projects have been managed to make a fair amount of progress."

He added that the project has come out on budget.

"The cost of the project is $27 million. The government of Canada is contributing up to $12.5 million to this project under the new Building Canada Fund Provincial-Territorial Infrastructure Component. And the Government of Saskatchewan is funding the remaining portion. So it is a cost shared initiative." 

"We know that twinned highways are safer because reduce the number of head-on collisions because they essentially separate the two lanes in directions of traffic."

READ MORE: Highway 39 Twinning Project: On Budget and On Time