The Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure (SMHI), working in partnership with several smaller
urban and rural municipalities, recently reconstructed a low volume (< 1000 AADT) 40 kilometer long Provincial
Highway corridor in Central Saskatchewan. As part of this partnership, the local communities offered to secure
the required right of way to reconstruct the corridor to an upgraded standard. An impediment to procuring the right
of way was the desire of a majority of the property owners along the corridor to not reduce the number of
productive acres in their agricultural land base.
SMHI prepared a proposal for the communities use in negotiating with the landowners that provided a method
whereby the majority of lands required outside of the roadway embankment footprint could remain in agricultural
production. This entailed first modifying the cross section geometric elements that were contained in the typical
design standards to provide for reasonable and safe traversing of the lands with all types of agricultural
equipment. Contingent to providing these elements was the ability to secure consent of individual landowners for
the use of, and to modify lands outside the right of way proper during construction. Participating landowners were
required to obtain and retain a valid permit authorizing their use of the right of way for agricultural purposes. The
permit contained the terms by which they were bound in return for the Province allowing the ongoing use of the
right of way for agricultural production. These terms included: 1) items necessary to ensure the safety and
ongoing operation of the corridor; 2) terms and conditions for the use of the right of way that would not inhibit
SMHI’s control of the right of way for maintenance of the roadway surface, embankment, and associated
appurtenances; 3) items to ensure the rights of way’s continued use as a corridor for the installation, operation
and maintenance of utilities; and 4) items to ensure the positive conveyance of water to maintain natural drainage
patterns and protect the embankment. The proposal was established on a pilot project basis and is now in its 3rd
year of operation.
There are multiple benefits of this approach including the environmental sustainability and continuing economic
benefit due to the continued productive use of the lands for agricultural production, reduced expenditures for the
procurement cost of the right of way, control of noxious weeds, and annual savings to SMHI in reductions in the
effort required for right of way maintenance. Based on the success of this pilot project, a second pilot project on
a 44 kilometer corridor reconstruction project is currently underway.