The major renovation project at the Weyburn Colosseum is on track to being completed on time, said Weyburn's chief building inspector Doug Mulhall.

At a budgeted cost of $1.5 million, the Colosseum upgrade is the city's main capital project of the year, aside from the paving and sewer upgrades on Government Road, and work has gone well so far, said Mulhall.

The old cracked ice slab has been removed, and the contractor found there was more frost underneath than the city had expected, going down about six feet instead of the expected depth of four feet. The earth has been excavated down to six feet, and the rebuilding process has begun, said Mulhall.

Meanwhile, the ice plant equipment has been relocated, and the large new compressor arrived; hookup of the equipment will take place as soon as possible, with the Sports Arena ice due to go in around mid-August.

The new compressor will have much more pumping power and be more efficient than the old ones, said Mulhall, pointing out two of the old compressors will remain, capable of pumping 40 pounds of brine; the new one by itself pumps out 100 pounds.

Work is also continuing on the south side of the Colosseum for the addition that will go in between the two arenas, with the foundation now completed. The contractor is awaiting a shipment of steel roof trusses for the addition.

On the south side of the Colosseum, crews are working on laying cinder blocks for the addition of a new work-maintenance area in between the Colosseum and Sports Arena.

When it's finished, the Colosseum will have a capacity of 1,850 people, including 100 in the lobby in a new seating area there; in addition, the main entry to the building will not be on the east end as it has been until now, but on the northeast corner facing towards the parking lot. The existing Colosseum has an area of 36,100 square feet on the main floor, and will have about 16,500 sq. ft. added.

The Colosseum is on track so far to reopen by about mid-September, said Mulhall, adding, "We've got a lot of work to do between here and there. The contractors have been working hard to keep us on track."

The city's other main project this summer, twinning the sewer lines up Government Road, is just over halfway done, said assistant city engineer Blaine Frank.

The crews advanced Bison Avenue towards Prairie Avenue in this past week, and will begin asphalt patching of the completed areas on Government Road down to Coteau Avenue.

"It's a slow process, it's deep and there are a lot of services in the ground," said Frank, noting the crews are averaging about 50 feet a day. He estimates the project has at least another two weeks to go before it reaches First Avenue.

Meanwhile, most of the recapping projects have been completed around the city, with the main one remaining being Third Street from Railway to Coteau Avenues, and Souris Avenue from Second to Third Street.

This was originally scheduled to be done over July 5-6 weekend, but it was too windy to spray the oil so it's been rescheduled to this week, said Frank. Crews will also be doing miscellaneous patching before they move to Sims Avenue to pave the main entrance road to the Wal-Mart store site later this summer.

About half a mile of pathway is also scheduled to be done in Tatagwa Parkway, extending from First Avenue north to the Souris Valley entrance road.