The Provincial Government's infrastructure strategy continues to benefit people and regions throughout the province. A recent tender call for the replacement of the Kenmount Road overpass at Topsail Road will help ease traffic congestion for both residential and commercial traffic on two roads that are among the busiest in the Northeast Avalon region.

"The existing Kenmount Road overpass has outlived its usefulness," said the Honourable Tom Hedderson, Minister of Transportation and Works. "Because of its age, height and size, the time has come to replace it with a larger structure that will better facilitate the flow of people and goods in this busy and expanding area of the province. Through our infrastructure strategy, we are making key infrastructure investments throughout the province and the replacement of this important structure with something better matched to the current and predicted traffic patterns fits well with our goal of improving infrastructure for the benefit of people and businesses throughout Newfoundland and Labrador."

The tender calls for the replacement of the Kenmount Road overpass, which currently has two lanes above and two lanes below the structure, with a much larger structure and associated work. The new overpass will accommodate four lanes on Kenmount Road, above the structure, and six lanes on Topsail Road, below the structure. The six lanes beneath the overpass will include two turning lanes for on-ramps that provide access to Kenmount Road. Once the project is completed, the interchange at this location will remain fully directional as it is today but will be able to handle much higher traffic flows. This project is being cost-shared 50/50 between the Provincial and Federal Governments under the federal Building Canada Fund.

"This is great news for the residents of the area," said Paul Davis, MHA for the District of Topsail. "The replacement of the Kenmount Road overpass and associated work will eliminate the bottleneck effect that currently exists at this location. This will lead to a more effective flow of traffic for both residents who commute to and from work and businesses who use these roads on a daily basis."

"This is a key piece of public infrastructure that has outlived its original design," said Steve Kent, MHA for Mount Pearl North. "This is an extremely busy area with rapid residential and commercial expansion. A significant enhancement of the flow of people and goods in this area will be realized once this work is completed and I know that it will be of great benefit for the entire area."

Also included in this tender is the replacement of two existing bridge structures on Kenmount Road, one over the T'Railway and one over the Waterford River, with large culverts. This work is expected to be completed later this fall.

Necessary widening work associated with the additional lanes above and below the Kenmount Road overpass will begin this summer. The completion of this widening, and other work including the demolition and replacement of the overpass structure, will begin next spring and should be completed by late summer/early fall, 2011. While this work is ongoing, a diversion will be constructed to divert Kenmount Road traffic around the construction site.

Budget 2010: The Right Investments — For Our Children and Our Future provides $177.7 million in Provincial Government funding for road and bridge expenditures throughout the province. This funding will be supplemented by an additional $57.9 million in Federal Government funding for a total road and bridge investment of $235.6 million in 2010-11. The Provincial Government's overall infrastructure strategy includes investments in municipalities, healthcare, education, justice, social housing, transportation, and environment and conservation.

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