The following statement was given today in the House of Assembly by the Honourable Steve Crocker, Minister of Transportation and Works:
Mr. Speaker, I rise in this Honourable House today to highlight the enhancements we’ve made to the province’s highway transportation network this year.
Our work to enhance our provincial highways keeps people working in their communities, facilitates increased tourism and trade, and ultimately fosters growth for our local economies.
When we released our Five-Year Provincial Roads Plan in January 2017, we knew that issuing tenders earlier in the year would lead to a longer and more productive road construction season. The Heavy Civil Association of Newfoundland and Labrador has applauded our plan for that reason.
This year, we have paved 568 lane kilometres through the plan. Add an additional 244 lane kilometres of paving completed this year on the Trans-Labrador Highway, and that’s over 800 lane kilometres that have been paved by Newfoundland and Labrador contractors hired by our department this construction season.
Our work this year has resulted in significant improvements to some of our higher-traffic routes, including the Outer Ring Road, Pitts Memorial Drive, and Peacekeepers Way. Work completed on various other sections of provincial highway includes mill and fill from Goobies to Clarenville, rehabilitation of Elliston Road, and completion of resurfacing from Bald Mountain to North Branch.
We will also be opening the latest phase of the Team Gushue Highway this fall, connecting Kenmount Road to Topsail Road, which will relieve traffic flows in the metro region.
And work will soon begin to add climbing lanes to sections of the Veterans Memorial Highway that will help increase safety by creating opportunities for motorists to pass slow-moving vehicles.
Mr. Speaker, our five-year plan is working and next year we will employ it again. Our annual public consultation process is currently open until November 16, and we are encouraging the public to let us know where they feel we should focus our efforts in 2019.
We look forward to seeing continued success under our five-year plan for the benefit of all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.