One of Swift Current's bumpiest roads will become the property of the City but not before the province rebuilds it.

North Service Road East currently belongs to the provincial government but a transfer agreement under the Urban Highway Connector Program will shift ownership to Swift Current.

"The ministry has an obligation to fully fund the next rehabilitation (repaving) of the roadway, to be completed on the ministry’s schedule and often coincide with other paving projects in the area," The Ministry of Highways said via email.

The City often applies to have the busy street rebuilt through the Urban Highway Connector Program but hasn't been able to gain any traction with the province.

"We just haven't come up for that rebuild just yet," Swift Current's General Manager of Infrastructure & Operations Mitch Minken said. "We don't know when that might be. It depends on how their priorities and funding work."

The 1.9-kilometre stretch is fixed by City crews regularly at the expense of the Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways.

"With some maintenance, it might last a while longer," he said. "The only thing is it just takes more and more maintenance all the time. More patching. You wonder at what point are we spending too much maintaining it and it should just be rebuilt." 

Patchwork on the countless potholes on the road this spring is atop the City's priority list within the next couple of weeks.

"We're just waiting for all the asphalt plants to fire up," he said. "That North Service Road East is the first priority on repair work."

If and when the road is rebuilt, the only cost the City could incur from the project would be adding additional turning lanes or pedestrian access.  

Minken added he's been in Swift Current for 16 years now and the road was redone before his arrival.