The provincial government in collaboration with the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) have identified 13 rural road construction projects which will receive funding.

In total, $16.8 million of investment comes through the Rural Integrated Roads for Growth (RIRG) program.

The government says the investment helps producers ship goods more efficiently and support the provinces export-based economy.

“The roads have to keep up and have to be built to maintain [heavy traffic],” Sask Party MLA for Lumsden-Morse Blaine McLeod said.

The Ministry of Highways will invest more than $5.3 million toward the projects and SARM will fund the remaining $11.5 million this construction season.

“We’ve got hundreds of miles of road systems in this province that need upgrading every year,” acting SARM President Bill Huber said. “We need adequate funding to make sure we can get this done.”

Projects this year range from clay capping, base and sub-base work, grading and surface strengthening.

Administered by SARM, the provincially-funded RIRG program invests in constructing and upgrading Rural Municipality (RM) road infrastructure. RIRG funding is up to 50 per cent per project to a maximum of $500,000 for a road and to a maximum $1 million for a large culvert or bridge. RMs fund the remaining project costs.

“We’ve got a growing agricultural economy and hopefully a growing oil industry,” Huber said. “We need good transportation access to get our products to market.”

RIRG oversight is provided by a Program Management Board made up of members from SARM and the Ministry of Highways.

The Government of Saskatchewan has invested more than $13 billion in transportation infrastructure since 2008 to improve more than 20,700 kilometres of highways across the province.