Road Improvement Contracts Awarded In Colchester County

Road improvements in Colchester County will mean safer driving conditions for travellers.

The Department of Transportation and Public Works has awarded four contracts worth about $2.6 million for road improvements in Colchester County.

The projects are:

• Trunk Highway 4: repaving from east of Exit 18A on Trans- Canada for 6.8 kilometres to Weeks Quarry in Pictou County. The winning contractor was S.W. Weeks Const. Ltd. with a bid of $1,486,540.

• Selected sections of various roads: 8,830 tonnes of asphalt patching on sections of the following roads: Trunk Highway 2, Salmon River Road, Old Greenfield Road, East Prince Street, Upper River John Road, Wittenburg Road, Upper Brookside Road, Cloverdale Road, and Plains Road. The winning contractor was Will-Kare Paving Contracting Ltd. with a bid of $682,322.

• Three roads in the Valley area, east of Truro: repaving on Terrabella Lane, from Athena Drive east for 500 metres; repaving on Athena Drive from Terrabella Lane for 300 metres to Sinclair Court; and repaving on Sinclair Court from Athena Drive south for 180 metres. The winning contractor was Will-Kare Paving & Contracting Ltd. with a bid of $249,730.

• Selected sections of various roads: spreading 21,700 tonnes of gravel on sections of the following roads: Mines Bass River Road, Back Road (near Stewiacke), Derek Drive, Riverside Road, Karen Avenue, Otterbrook Branch Road, East Mountain Road, Riverside Road, and Kemptown Road. The winning contractor was Dexter Construction Co. with a bid of $215,915.

The total value of the four contracts is $2,634,507.

"This work is part of our department's aggressive program to improve Nova Scotia roads," said Ron Russell, Minister of Transportation and Public Works. "The budget for 2005-06 calls for our department to spend $143 million on constructing and upgrading the province's highways."

The Department of Transportation and Public Works' highways division manages more than 23,000 kilometres of roads in Nova Scotia. It maintains 4,100 bridges and operates seven provincial ferries. Staff provide services from offices in Bridgewater, Bedford, Truro and Sydney.