Atlantic Highways Thread

[Smevo]

Figured I'd add some colour to the thread.

Canso Causeway, Hwy 104


Hwy 105 - Bras D'Or




Hwy 125, Coxheath Rd Interchange

[David1gray]

Barneys River fire chief: ‘Deadly’ 104 needs twinning

A head-on collision does horrible things to the humans trapped inside the vehicles.

And Joe MacDonald can remember every single collision he’s attended since joining the Barneys River and District Volunteer Fire Department in 1987.

“They add up and play on you,” said the chief of the small Pictou County fire department on Monday.

“When two cars collide there’s an awful impact. … You never forget those calls.”

...

http://thechronicleherald.ca/novasco...Dl6njU.twitter

[benvui]

Looks like the twinning of Route 11 is going to start soon. Funding announcement of 27 million from the Federal government with another 33 million from the province.
It would be nice to see the project finally get off the ground.
News 91.9 article here.

[MonctonRad]

Yes, they are talking about twinning as far as Bouctouche, which will essentially complete the highway twinning necessary in southeastern NB.

The only other twinning in our region that might be nice someday would be to extend the twinned segment of Highway 15 to Cap Pele.

Gee, this announcement on top of the announcement of plans to complete the Fundy Trail. I wonder if there is an election coming?

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Gee, this announcement on top of the announcement of plans to complete the Fundy Trail. I wonder if there is an election coming?

Can't have a day go by and can't do a single thing without people either complaining or finding something wrong, huh?

Bouctouche is about as far as should be twinned. People who think 11 should be twinned to Miramichi or Bathurst are dreaming.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by JHikka

Can't have a day go by and can't do a single thing without people either complaining or finding something wrong, huh?

Oh I think this is an excellent and overdue project. At 20,000 vehicles per day, this section of highway has about twice the traffic needed to justify twinning. I was just noting the timing of the announcement. There was no reason why this announcement (or the Fundy Trail announcement) couldn't have been made last year.

BTW, the $60M for this portion of the Highway 11 twinning project will only cover the first 8.6 km as far as the Shediac River. This is the most complex part of the project, and will cover renovating three interchanges (including the 11/15 interchange), and building a new interchange to service the town of Shediac itself. This will require three years to complete (fall 2017).

I imagine it will be at least 2020 or 2022 before we see twinning to Bouctouche.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Oh I think this is an excellent and overdue project. At 20,000 vehicles per day, this section of highway has about twice the traffic needed to justify twinning. I was just noting the timing of the announcement. There was no reason why this announcement (or the Fundy Trail announcement) couldn't have been made last year.

Perhaps, but the electorate has a tremendously short attention-span, and for every person who says "Hey, that government is pork-barrelling for the election!" I am sure there are two who say "Hey, the government is putting our money to something we may (or may not) want!"

More worrisome is how elections are quickly becoming arms races during the writ period. We've seen this in Ontario, Quebec, and BC, where a party has come from behind in the polls to win the election by a landslide simply due to their writ period campaign. Whether these writ period campaign promises are feasible, or are simply just promises, remains to be seen, but it appears as though the governing PCs are doing what they can during the summer in the lead-up to the writ period this fall.

[Ire Narissis]

I just want to see highway 7 twinned. Pipe dreams...

[josh_cat_eyes]

Originally Posted by Ire Narissis

I just want to see highway 7 twinned. Pipe dreams...

I don't think it's a pipe dream. Even if it was twinned up until the edges of the military area and then if it was just a controlled access highway through the base.

I would like to see highway 15 twinned until Cap-Pele at the very least!

[Trevor3]

Towns Pushing for Mid-Island Road Upgrades

While towns on the southwest coast want to move ahead with mid-island road upgrades, it’s also clear they don’t want to have it done by taking away from upgrades to current roads.
...
Dominey said traveling the full Trans-Canada Highway route is a nine to 10-hour drive for people in their area, but the mid-island route cuts down the travel time to about eight hours to reach St. John’s.

http://www.thewesternstar.com/News/L...oad-upgrades/1

The big takeaway here is that there will be no upgrades at the expense of existing highways/roads, so we won't see a paved route through the interior any time soon. There is hope for a well maintained dirt highway to connect Buchans and Route 480 though, and that could eventually be paved in the future and be used to open up the interior to tourism and freight movement.

[MonctonRad]

Here is the proposed new highway alignment for Route 11 at Shediac, also showing the new 11/15 interchange.

[q12]

New Brunswick's highway of discontent

Charlottetown The Guardian
Teresa Wright
Published on August 23, 2014


Source: Guardian photo by Brian McInnis

There’s only one main artery that leads to Prince Edward Island via the Confederation Bridge, and it’s rife with potholes, patches and moose

Read more here: http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/News/Lo...f-discontent/1

^This is pretty sad, an important section of the Trans Canada Highway that looks like a cow path.

Thought this comment sums it up:

Frequent island traveler
August 23, 2014 - 11:17
2 summers ago the Govt of NS repaved the entire Trans Canada Hwy 106 leading from the Caribou ferry terminal to the 4 lane highway in Westville. They also have high tech LED street lights at the Pictou rotary and on thd Pictou causeway. NS sees the value in good roads. I see that the reporter er erroneously omits this little comparison. If you've traveled every kilometre of NB's arterial highway network this year as I have, you'll know that NB Hwy 16 is not unique in its poor condition. Hwy 11 to Campbellton has a lot of crumbling pavement, so does the 4 lane Hwy 1 to the border at St Stephen & Hwy 2 to edmundston - these were completely rebuilt or built new within the last 15-20 years but the lack of maintenance is showing in spades. NB is flat broke - the worst of all provinces in the country & they're deferring on schools, healthcare, roads, etc. Thr condition of Hwy 16 to the bridge is just a symptom of a much much larger problem. My solution? I go to Halifax using the ferry instead. Safer and almost the same amount of time and I feel more rested.

Maybe they should have built the confederation bridge between Nova Scotia and P.E.I., it's unfortunate for Islanders to have their only fixed link connected to such a poorly funded and maintained highway. Highway 106 between Caribou, N.S. (ferry terminal) and Highway 104 is a perfect stretch of highway.

In general it's easy to notice the freeways in Nova Scotia are maintained to a higher standard and repaved more frequently then in New Brunswick. Another bad section of the Trans Canada in New Brunswick is between Sackville N.B. and Moncton.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by q12

Maybe they should have built the confederation bridge between Nova Scotia and P.E.I.

And you're basing this on one comment from an article online? The Confederation Bridge already broke records when it was built between NB & PEI. Building it to Nova Scotia would have resulted in a bridge twice the length and likely more than twice the cost. Along with this, i'm unsure of the engineering requirements for a bridge of that length.

[Marty_Mcfly]

^Fond memories of driving that highway at 1am on January nights. Could use a few upgrades, but at least it wasn't the worst highway I've ever traveled on....if that's saying something?

[MonctonRad]

Oh q12, your anti-NB bias is showing again…..

I won't dispute the fact that Highway 16 to the bridge needs repairs, but the entire road doesn't look like that photo. The worst part is from Port Elgin to the bridge. The portion of the road between Aulac and Port Elgin is actually pretty decent.

I also won't dispute the fact that the TCH in the southeast of the province needs work, but elsewhere in NB, the freeway system is in great shape. In particular Highway 1 between Saint John and the Maine border is truly a world class piece of engineering. Maybe you should get some Mainers to compare NB Highway 1 to the Airline Route.

The majority of Highway 2 west of Salisbury is owned and maintained by MRDC, and is also in pretty good shape.

I'm sorry you feel so put upon by the "cowpaths" that you feel that you have to navigate in NB during your travels from NS to the rest of the worthwhile world, but I have a solution for you. Since some of the chief beneficiaries of the NB highway system are Nova Scotians on the way to Alberta, I propose a $20 toll collectable at the NS/NB border.

NB could use the monies collected to improve our infrastructure. I'm sure you wouldn't mind paying, would you…….

[q12]

Originally Posted by JHikka

And you're basing this on one comment from an article online? The Confederation Bridge already broke records when it was built between NB & PEI. Building it to Nova Scotia would have resulted in a bridge twice the length and likely more than twice the cost. Along with this, i'm unsure of the engineering requirements for a bridge of that length.

Clearly I'm kidding about the bridge, which is in fact in great shape. The point of the article was about the condition over the years of the Trans Canada highway on the N.B. side leading up to the bridge. I've driven it many times and you'd have to be delusional to not think that highway has some pretty rough sections.

[q12]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Oh q12, your anti-NB bias is showing again…..

I won't dispute the fact that Highway 16 to the bridge needs repairs, but the entire road doesn't look like that photo. The worst part is from Port Elgin to the bridge.

I applaud you for actually acknowledging that it has been poorly maintained and not using your N.B. bias to distort something in your province.

In particular Highway 1 between Saint John and the Maine border is truly a world class piece of engineering.

It's brand new of course it should be in good shape today.

I'm sorry you feel so put upon by the "cowpaths" that you feel that you have to navigate in NB during your travels from NS to the rest of the worthwhile world, but I have a solution for you. Since some of the chief beneficiaries of the NB highway system are Nova Scotians on the way to Alberta, I propose a $20 toll collectable at the NS/NB border.

NB could use the monies collected to improve our infrastructure. I'm sure you wouldn't mind paying, would you…….

Actually, I'm all for tolls in N.B. if it means safe well maintained highways. I actually think N.B. is foolish not to toll their highways which take a beating from Trucks and vehicles headed to the other Atlantic Provinces.

The Cobequid pass is in excellent condition and has long sections that are repaved often and is also pretty cheap at $2 with a macpass/epass.

[Walk then Run]

I feel the need to jump in on this NS vs. NB roads

I recently had the pleasure of driving multiple roads during our family vacation to the beautiful South Shore of NS. I've got to say that the worst part of the trip was the inner HRM roads (and they weren't that bad). Saying that, we should remember that the cycle between both provinces road refurbishment are not equal. In NS, at least half of the secondary and tertiary roads I drove on were very recently or nearly redone, maybe NB will soon work on Hwy 16 and the TCH stretch from Sackville to the NS border. At that time we'll be discussing how crappy the NS roads are and how good the NB ones are.

I for one would most definitely support multiple tolls throughout our NB system if it means better / safer roads. Should be a topic in the upcoming NB provincial election, and we should be taking advantage of the traffic using our highways. The worst promise / mistake (IMHO) the 1999 Lord government made was to rip out the tolls around Salisbury. When your desperate for votes anything goes...c'est la vie

[Ire Narissis]

I noticed something interesting when I drove to Toronto this summer: in Ontario and Quebec, the best roads are way better than NB's roads and the worst ones are *way* worse. Sometimes the TCH in QC and ON is like driving on a dirt road. I find it interesting that, despite our maintenance woes, even in their worst shape our highways aren't as bad as the ones that the big provinces neglect.

It's as if they spend all their money on building the shiny new state-of-the-art roads, and then have nothing left for maintenance of the existing ones. Hmm... this is starting to become strangely familiar...

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by Ire Narissis

I noticed something interesting when I drove to Toronto this summer: in Ontario and Quebec, the best roads are way better than NB's roads and the worst ones are *way* worse.

Indeed. Autoroute 20 east and west of Quebec City is atrocious. Worse than any NB highway i've been on.

I remember driving on the Veterans Memorial between Moncton and Shediac maybe 7-8 years ago and that was all torn up similar to how Highway 16 is currently. Then, the provincial government fixed it. These things are eventually taken care of and, in the case of smaller provinces, they sometimes require extreme patience.