Саскачеван облысының 7-ші тас жолы

Highway in Saskatchewan
Highway 7 is an important trade and travel route linking Saskatoon with several of its bedroom communities such as Delisle and Vanscoy, as well as larger centres farther afield such as Rosetown and Kindersley. Its primary use, however, is by travelers heading for Calgary, Alberta and the Canadian west coast. Despite being one of the most heavily used roads in the province, as of 2020, there is only approximately 36.5 km of the route that is divided highway; 34.5 km from Saskatoon to Delisle, including a recently completed bypass of Vanscoy, and 2 km just east of Rosetown at the Rosetown Airport and Cargill inland terminal. In 2020, the provincial government announced funding to install eight passing lanes east of Kindersley, as well as further plans for an additional six to the west, bringing the total number of passing lanes to 26 along the corridor and helping to improve safety until such a time as twinning the highway is financially feasible and traffic volumes require such. Extensive oil exploration and development has been occurring since 2010, primarily in the Kindersley Region, from Brock to the Alberta Border. Heavy traffic, agriculture, grain transport, and oilfield service, as well as oil and fuel transports, are common on this highway. Agriculture, and oilfield services are the main industries of the area. The only District hospital on Hwy 7 is located at Kindersley. Agrium Vanscoy Potash Operations is Canada's third largest producer of potash fertilizer. In the 1930s early homesteaders would maintain Highway 7 as a means to supplement their income. Provincial Highway 7 followed the Canadian Northern Railway grade for direction of travel with the actual road way being on the square on the Dominion survey township lines. Highway 7 was widened in 1944 and rebuilt between 1960 and 1961. Highway 7 currently terminates at its junction with 22nd Street West (Highway 14) in west Saskatoon, although it is marked to run concurrently to Highway 11 (Idylwyld Drive). In 2005, work began on realigning Highway 7 in order to make way for the Blairmore Suburban Centre development including the Bethlehem High School, Tommy Douglas Collegiate and the Shaw Centre located where Highway 7 linked with 22nd Street prior to 2006.

The entirety of Highway 7 is a primary weight asphalt concrete (AS) national highway within the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure (SHS) West Central Municipal Government Committee planning jurisdiction. Travel on Highway 7 begins in the west at the Alberta Saskatchewan provincial border through the Missouri Coteau which features mixed prairie vegetation. Entering Alberta, the highway continues west as Alberta Highway 9. The Military Dome site radar station is a heritage site and has been acquired by Alsask along with the 1960s airforce base. At Alsask, Highway 7 turns northeast until km 3.9 when again the highway is routed east. Again at km 6.1 the highway turns northeast until km 19.8 just past the intersection with Highway 317. Marengo, a small village of about 50 residents is north of the junction. The town of Kindersley is the largest center featuring both oil and agricultural industries along Highway 7 and with a population of about 4,500 is almost at city status of 5,000 residents. As of 2009, the Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT) ranges from approximately 1,600 to 2,000 vehicles per day (vpd) near the Alberta Saskatchewan border to over 3,000 vpd near Kindersley, updated statistics, and vehicle types in 2013 show evidence that the 2009 vehicle count is out of date and severely understates actual traffic flow. The potash mine was established in 1931 as Cominco Fertilizers Ltd. changing names in 1995 to Agrium Inc., the nation's third largest producer of potash The AADT on Highway 7 near Vanscoy increases to over 5,600 vpd. The Saskatchewan Highway Act was established in 1922, in compliance with the 1919 Canadian highway act. At the initial stages of the Saskatchewan Highway Act, 10 mile (16 km) of provincial highways were gravel and the rest were earth roads. The road allowances were laid out as a part of the Dominion Land survey system for homesteading. Travel along the Provincial Highway 7 before the 1940s would have been traveling on the square following the township road allowances, barbed wire fencing and the Canadian Northern rail line. As the surveyed township roads were the easiest to travel, the first highway was designed on 90 degree, right angle corners as the distance traversed the prairie along range roads and township roads. Mr. Ralph Glen Chapman an early 20th century settler in Pleasant Valley maintained 10 mile (16 km) of Highway 7. Mr. Block of the German Mennonite settlement at Fiske maintained a stretch of Highway 7 as a means of supplementing his income in the 1930s. In 1939, Andy Anderson in the same fashion, kept a 10 mile (16 km) stretch of Highway 7 clear. Highway 7 currently terminates at its junction with 22nd Street West (Highway 14) in west Saskatoon. In 2005, work began on realigning Highway 7 in order to make way for the Blairmore Suburban Centre development including the Bethlehem High School, Tommy Douglas Collegiate and the Shaw Centre located where Highway 7 linked with 22nd Street prior to 2006. Starting in 2006, Highway 7 was linked with Betts Avenue, a new city street, which in turn intersected 22nd Street at a traffic signal. The city and province built an intersection farther west (but still with the city limits) at the junction of Highway 14 and Highway 684 (Dalmeny Road), at which point the new Highway 7 alignment links with this intersection. Long term plans call for an interchange to be constructed here, and a link to be created from Highway 684 to the Yellowhead Highway in Saskatoon's north side, though it has not yet been announced whether the Highway 7 designation will be applied north of Highway 14.