HANLEY—It will soon be smooth sailing into the Town of Hanley.

Thursday, Saskatchewan Highways announced it intends to cover a 0.61-kilometres stretch of the bumpy road with hot-mix asphalt concrete.

The province awarded the project to contractor HJR and it is tied to an asphalt concrete project on Highway 11.

The access road from Highway 11 into Hanley, was built years ago as a thin-membrane surface. It is in poor condition and has been for years. It handles an average of 1,050 vehicles per day.

The Hanley project is one of several similar projects Highways and Infrastructure announced it intends to tackle this construction season.

The funding is coming from the Small Community and Tourism Access Roads Program and so far is spending $10.3 million to upgrade access roads to Dinsmore, Sun Valley, Verwood, Kennedy, Prelate, Dodsland and Margo.

The roads will be built to a standard that may accommodate secondary weight truck traffic and RVs.

Criteria considered under the Small Community and Toursim Access Roads program includes: construction work on adjacent highways, traffic volume, collision statistics, the highway’s condition and annual maintenance costs, community population and employment and/or tourists visits.