Skip to main content

Nova Scotia sets road budget for 2019-20 at US$224 million

The Canadian province of Nova Scotia will get US$224 million for road upgrades in 2019-20, a boost of $11.2 million over the current period. Lloyd Hines, the province’s transportation and infrastructure renewal minister, said much of the additional funding will be for twinning portions of the province’s 100 series highways, including the 101, 103, 104 and the 107 Sackville-Burnside connector. The plan includes rebuilding and upgrading gravel roads and around $15 million of the money has been earmarked
December 20, 2018 Read time: 2 mins

The Canadian province of Nova Scotia will get US$224 million for road upgrades in 2019-20, a boost of $11.2 million over the current period.

Lloyd Hines, the province’s transportation and infrastructure renewal minister, said much of the additional funding will be for twinning portions of the province’s 100 series highways, including the 101, 103, 104 and the 107 Sackville-Burnside connector.

The plan includes rebuilding and upgrading gravel roads and around $15 million of the money has been earmarked for this. However, the highway improvement plan is subject to provincial budget approval next spring.

The $224 million will be made up of federal, provincial and municipal monies.

The 100-series highway are mostly controlled-access expressways, Super-2 roads and divided motorways. freeway. They connect major cities and regions, including Halifax, and Cape Breton Regional Municipality with smaller cities such as Yarmouth, Truro, New Glasgow and Amherst, as well as the neighbouring province of New Brunswick.

A Super-2 road refers to a two-lane highway that has partial control of access, occasional passing lanes and hard shoulders. It is often built for eventual conversion to motorway status if traffic volumes rise.

The upcoming work is part of the province’s five-year strategic Highway Improvement Plan published in 2017. It covers work to be done along the province’s 23,000km of roads and highways as well as the 4,100 bridges between this year and 2023.

According to the five-year plan, unlike many other provinces, Nova Scotia is responsible for maintaining the majority of all public roads in the province – 90% in this case. “The cost per kilometre is over CAN$300,000 (US$224,000) to repave, CAN$500,000-750,000  (US$373,000-560,000) more to upgrade a trunk highway…,” notes the document.

“Pavement Preservation is cost effective. Spending CAN$1 on pavement preservation before a paved road is 15 years old can eliminate or delay having to spend CAN$6-14 on rehabilitation or reconstruction when the pavement surface has failed.”

Related Content

  • Road paving plan proposed for Mozambique
    March 20, 2015
    An ambitious road improvement scheme has been proposed by the Mozambique Government. The programme of works calls for the paving of 2,100km of roads by 2019. The scheme will address both national and regional roads across the country between 2015 and 2019, covering around 420km/year of roads on average. Also included within the programme will be repairs to 57 bridges. Meanwhile a further 2,800km of roads will be repaired, an average on 560km/year, by 2019. The, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
  • Fluor and ACS Infrastructure Canada win Gordie Howe Bridge deal
    October 2, 2018
    Bridging North America will build the Gordie Howe Bridge, named after a famous Canadian ice hockey player and leading scorer A partnership including Fluor Canada and ACS Infrastructure Canada has been chosen to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the Gordie Howe International Bridge project. The client, Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority (WDBA), announced the appointment of Bridging North America group in the Canadian city of Windsor, across the Detroit River from Detroit in the US state of Michig
  • Europe closes in on the crossings
    September 27, 2017
    The Mersey Gateway bridge project off England’s west coast passed a milestone recently with the first joining of two of the deck sections. The key segments, as the sections are called, link the north approach viaduct to the north pylon deck span and are the first of four deck-joins scheduled for this summer. In total, there are five sections of bridge deck and approach roads that need to be joined.
  • New international trade crossing linking Canada and US
    June 9, 2015
    The Detroit River is short, only 45km, and narrow in places, less than 1km. Around a quarter of the annual $658 billion Canada-US trade crosses over the river. That’s $160 billion worth of goods trucked each year between Detroit in the US state of Michigan and the Canadian city of Windsor in the province of Ontario - the Windsor-Detroit Corridor. There are several types of crossings, but the vast majority of commercial traffic must use the 2.3km Ambassador Bridge (see box). A new bridge was initially prop