The southern regional director for Saskatchewan highways came looking for a partnership last week with the RM of Weyburn, and maybe the City of Weyburn, for the deteriorating three-kilometre stretch of highway to the north known as the airport road.

"The reality is we have to make choices to deal with the traffic we have," said Terry Blomme. "Our first priority is to preserve the critical pavements." Highway 39 is one in this area which will see a lot of dollars over the next five years, he said.

Blomme predicted within the next five years the Highways department will turn the paved airport road back to gravel, and may hand it to the RM of Weyburn to maintain.

Blomme told RM councillors, and representatives from the city who attended the meeting, the road is an "anomaly" in the province's highway system.

"It should not be in the system." It's the last access road to an airport that the department maintains in the whole province and it should be looked after by the local government, he said.

Blomme said the province does not have the dollars needed to improve the pavement but will pay to rebuild it to a gravel road. The cost would be about $20,000/km, he said. The province also is willing to transfer upgrading funds to the RM on the condition the RM adds it to its own road system. Maybe the city will pay for part of the upgrading, he suggested.

Highways area manager Al Seghers told council the airport road is part of 7,000 km in the province paved 30-40 years ago, primarily for dust control, when there was very little truck traffic. The TMS process, or "thin membrane surface," used at the time was not designed to carry the heavy truck loads currently travelling the highways, he said. The province is repaving 800-900 km of its highways each year.

Blomme said the airport road is unsustainable as it is, because of the cost of upkeep. "We're reluctant to move to gravel but as the tonnage increases we must bit the bullet and do it."

The department has already spent $3,000 this spring filling potholes on the road, he said. "We think gravel is acceptable."

Blomme suggested the only other alternative is to limit traffic on the road. RM officials rejected that choice because of the industrial and residential traffic from North Weyburn which use the road as an alternative to the gravel roads on the south and north.

If the RM and city are not interested in upgrading the road now, the department will slowly gravel different sections over the next five years as they fail, Blomme said.

RM councillor Ron Lutz said gravelling the road would be a step backward. That's what it was 50-60 years ago, he said.

Weyburn city manager Bob Smith told Blomme the city wants the road to remain a dust-free road.

But councillor Maurice Clark said the RM has to be realistic and get something done about the road. "The ratepayers are our responsibility." Several councillors voiced their concern over traffic safety on the road because of its deterioration.

Council asked RM administrator Kim McIvor to get more information from the city of Swift Current, where the province gravelled the second last airport road in the province a couple of years ago.

Smith said Wednesday the city attended the meeting to give "moral support" to the RM. It expects to receive a recommendation about the road's future from the RM, accompanied by costs. Once the city sees the dollar figures, it may be open to discussion with the RM, he said.

The road is important to the city as the gateway from the airport but the cost of pavement might be prohibitive to both the RM and the city, he said. "We would have to weigh the costs against the benefits," said Smith.

The city owns the airport and operates it with a subsidy. "There are businesses in the city that use it," he said.

Acting reeve Lloyd Culham said the RM will make a decision before work has to be done on the road in the spring.