SaskatoonDan Willems, director of technical services for the City of Saskatoon, says vehicles should be back on the Broadway Bridge by the end of October. Meanwhile, construction of 31 new Link transit stations this year likely contributed to perceptions this season was extra busy.Broadway Bridge expected to reopen on schedule in late OctoberLori Coolican · CBC News · Posted: Sep 17, 2025 5:14 PM EDT | Last Updated: September 17A look behind the barrier at the ongoing rehabilitation project on the deck of the Broadway Bridge, which has been closed to traffic since May. The city says crews have been working around the clock and the project is on schedule, which means it should reopen to traffic by the end of October. (City of Saskatoon)Road construction sites around Saskatoon were impossible to miss in the summer of 2025.Was this season busier than normal, or did it just seem that way?Saskatoon Morning host Stephanie Massicotte put that question to Dan Willems, the City of Saskatoon’s director of technical services.”We are a growing city, so there’s always going to be incremental growth in how much we’re doing each year,” Willems said. “I think it likely appears to be a bit more, probably mostly due to the Link stations, which as you noted are popping up all over the place. It’s a bit like whack-a-mole.”Saskatoon MorningConstruction update on when Broadway Bridge will reopen and how other roadwork is coming alongHost Stephanie Massicotte speaks with the City of Saskatoon’s director of technical services, Dan Willems, about the road construction and major projects happening in the city.Last year, the city built eight Link stations — Link is the name for the city’s upcoming bus rapid transit system. This year, 19 more Link stations have been completed and another 12 will likely go up before the season ends, he said.Those projects “tend to be a little bit shorter in duration, usually around three weeks, but they are kind of cropping up all over the place … so they are fairly visible when you do see them. And there are quite a few of them.”The largest project of 2025 is rehabilitation of the Broadway Bridge, which has been totally closed since May for major repairs to the upper deck. Willems said work has been done around the clock, seven days a week.”The demolition work’s complete. New traffic barriers along both sides of the roadway on the bridge have been reinstated and we’re just setting new expansion joints and getting prepared for new waterproofing to go down, and then asphalt,” he said.”So that work is still going to take a few more weeks, and we’re projecting it’ll be reopened to traffic in late October. There’ll be some work ongoing underneath the bridge. That shouldn’t impact traffic, though. That’s expected to extend into November.”The extensive rehabilitation of the Broadway Bridge involved work on its expansion joints, like the one seen here. (City of Saskatoon)People have noticed and wondered about the old bus stop shelters being reinstalled at the new Link stations, but that’s temporary, Willems said.”The intent still remains to put new shelters out there. It’s just a separate procurement, and in the meantime those are actively used bus stops, so reinstating the amenities that were there is why we put the old shelters back in place if they were there before.”Next year’s major disruptionCollege Drive, which is a major corridor for both students and downtown commuters, is slated for extensive changes related to the Link transit system, which the city hopes to roll out in 2028. “So we’re still working on the construction review as far as how things are going to be staged, but construction work on College Drive will start next year and is very likely to take two construction seasons to do, because there’s some major changes to that roadway for the corridor from Preston Avenue to Clarence Avenue,” Willems said.The city’s goal is to keep it partially open during construction, “especially due to [Royal] University Hospital being there, and trying to maintain access,” he said.Having that work underway will present an opportunity to piggyback other projects along the same corridor, Willems said.”So there’s arch repairs to the University Bridge that we want to get done, and there’s some water main replacement work on 25th Street downtown at the other end of University Bridge that we want to do as well, while College is impacted.”WATCH | Saskatoon businesses brace for impact of Broadway Bridge closure: Saskatoon businesses brace for impact of Broadway Bridge closureBeginning in April, the Broadway Bridge, including the multi-use pathways on both sides, will fully close for at least six months.ABOUT THE AUTHORLori Coolican has been a reporter and editor in Western Canada since 1996.With files from Stephanie Massicotte
After Saskatoon’s summer of detours, end of busy construction season in sight
