Humboldt Mayor Rob Muench is hopeful that further improvements to Highway 5 will progress this year.

He asked highways and infrastructure minister David Marit for an update on the section between Highway 2 and Saskatoon at last month's Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association convention.

“It’s very narrow, there’s a lack of a shoulder and we’ve had concerns form emergency personnel if there's ever a vehicle that needs to pull over or a tow truck that needs to get on or an ambulance, it’s very hard to pull over. A lot of steep ditches and a lot of water coming right up to the side of the road,” Muench told Bolt FM.

Marit said at the conference and in a follow-up letter to Muench that the project is a priority. 

The ministry “is working toward additional corridor improvements between Saskatoon and Highway 2, which could include additional passing lanes, widening, repaving, intersection improvements, and fixing the vertical alignment in several locations,” he wrote in the March 12 letter.

The ministry “is in the process of completing a detailed functional planning study for the Highway 5 corridor. This is a priority project for (the ministry), but we need to do the proper planning before construction can begin.”

Passing lanes between Humboldt and Highway 2 were completed last year.