HALIFAX: Nova Scotia’s 23,000 kilometres of roads, highways and 4,100 bridges will see a $300 million investment in capital spending.
Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal Minister Lloyd Hines updated the public on the over 150 projects as he released the 2020-21 edition of the five-year highway improvement plan on December 18.
“Transportation is critical to ensure safe and connected communities,” the MLA for Guysborough-Eastern Shore-Tracadie said. “That’s why we’re making such a significant investment in Nova Scotia’s infrastructure.”
The $300 million investment includes; $130 million for major capital construction, such as new highways and interchanges; plus an additional $170 million for asphalt work and resurfacing and bridge replacement and rehab
Among the local projects for the upcoming fiscal year, will be the construction of a new roundabout at the intersection of Highway 105 and Route 252 in Inverness County, and design work completed for Trunk 30 from MacLellans Cross Road to Victoria/Inverness County Line. The DTIR also mentioned the continuation of Highway 104 twinning between Sutherland’s River and Antigonish.
Moving up the priority list is the notorious Beech Hill Road-Highway 4 intersection in Antigonish.
“We’ve been working on that intersection for a year, we had a traffic study conducted to inform us as to what the situation was,” Hines told The Reporter. “We have some plans in place, we’ve been working closely with the Municipality of the County of Antigonish; they have made some really good suggestions in which we’re looking to incorporate into our plans for the intersection.”
An unfortunate fatal collision on December 2, a serious collision six-days-later, then and other collision at the intersection last week underscore why the province is moving this project forward.
“At this point we have moved it up the priority list; there are several options for solutions all the way from temporary traffic lights to a full-blown roundabout,” Hines said. “All of them take a bit of time from a design perspective. You don’t want to make a spontaneous solution that ends up creating more trouble than we had in the first place.”
Officials with TIR are working diligently to provide a solution that improves the overall safety but they have to understand what the municipality wants too.
“Part of the issue is that was the original Trans-Canada and right at that intersection proceeding west, there are five-lanes of traffic,” Hines explained. “It gives you the impression you’re still on the Trans-Canada even though the speed limit is reduced to 80 km/h.”
One of the things TIR is going to do is remove one lane to make it look less like the twinned highway and more like the secondary road that it is.
“We’re hoping to do that over the winter,” Hines said. “I think we’re going to have a solution very shortly, and we might be able to see something done before Christmas Day.”
The highway improvement plan is subject to the approval of the 2020-21 budget next spring, full details on the 2020-21 five-year highway improvement plan can be found at: https://novascotia.ca/tran/highways/fiveyearplan.asp.