Contracts Awarded for Highway 101Twinning

TRANSPORTATION/PUBLIC WORKS--Contracts Awarded for Highway 101 Twinning

The province has moved closer to completing the first phase of Highway 101 twinning with the recent awarding of two key construction projects.

St. Lawrence Cement was awarded a $5.9 million contract to pave 11 kilometres of new surface in concrete; Dexter Construction was awarded a $1.3 million contract to build a new railroad overpass half-way between Mount Uniacke and Ellershouse.

"This is a significant step forward in our goal of twinning Highway 101," said Michael Baker, Minister of Transportation and Public Works. "We are on schedule to open a new twinned section of road in the fall."

As well, a second tender has been advertised for paving of 10 kilometres of twinned asphalt roadway along Highway 101. The work

• in asphalt - will run from the railroad overpass on Highway 101 to the Mount Uniacke Overpass. The tender closes June 13.

The work on Highway 101 - part of an existing cost-shared highways agreement with the federal government - stretches from Mount Uniacke to Ellershouse.

The new highway work has been ongoing since July of 2001, when Nova Scotia and Ottawa signed a $34.6 million highways agreement under the Strategic Highway Infrastructure Program.

As part of that deal, about $27 million was set aside to twin 21 kilometres of existing two-lane road on Highway 101.

Concrete roads are rare in Nova Scotia but more common in other provinces and states. There are two existing concrete roads in Nova Scotia (near Oxford on Highway 104 and on the Bridgetown Interchange off Highway 101).

The new twinned portion of Highway 101 should be ready to open in the fall of 2003.

NOTE: Concrete Road Facts in Nova Scotia

• Concrete roads are rare in Nova Scotia but more common in other provinces and states.

• Concrete roads are more expensive to build, but require less maintenance.

• There are two existing concrete roads in Nova Scotia (near Oxford on Highway 104 and on the Bridgetown Interchange off Highway 101), built in the mid-1990s. The roads have performed well.

• Trucks are said to use less fuel on concrete roads; a National Research Council study project is studying this topic.

• The contractor, St. Lawrence Cement, has been present in Nova Scotia for 20 years. The company has been a member of the Nova Scotia Roadbuilders Association for 15 years.

• Over the years, St. Lawrence Cement has invested over $1 million in research in Nova Scotia to produce high-performance cements.

• Over the last 20 years, St. Lawrence Cement was a customer of Devco for coal, Nova Scotia Power for fly ash, and continues to purchase gypsum from operations in both Cape Breton and mainland Nova Scotia to supply cement manufacturing plants.