Final phase of Team Gushue Highway on track to begin construction this year
“We want to see this done, obviously, in the shortest period of time as possible. In terms of timeframes, we are pretty well on schedule. We may have lost a few months in terms of getting the tender ready, but we’ll pick that up in the spring.” Transportation and Infrastructure Minister John Abbott
The final phase of the Team Gushue Highway is on track to start construction this year, according to Transportation and Infrastructure Minister John Abbott, despite being behind schedule on releasing tenders for the work.
Abbott told Saltwire on March 26 that the delay in issuing tenders, which were slated to go out last fall, is related to a number of factors, including getting the design work finished and signed off, and getting all the necessary land secured.
“That process is still ongoing, but we're at the stage now that we almost have the tender ready to roll,” he said.
“We want to see this done, obviously, in the shortest period of time as possible. In terms of timeframes, we are pretty well on schedule. We may have lost a few months in terms of getting the tender ready, but we'll pick that up in the spring.”
The final phase of the highway, expected to be completed by 2027, will connect the highway to Pitts Memorial Drive via a series of roundabouts and a realignment of a section of Brookfield Road. In 2023, the provincial and federal governments announced $30 million to complete the highway, with half coming from the feds and half from the province.
The first two phases of the project cost just over $70 million, so the overall cost for the highway will come in at about $100 million.
Of that amount, approximately $37.5 million was and will be covered by the federal government, leaving $63 million or so from provincial coffers.
Abbott said once the highway is completed it will have a significant impact on moving traffic from the north part of the city to the south and take pressure off some roads such as Brookfield Road and Commonwealth Avenue in Mount Pearl.
PITTS ON TRACK
Commuters who use Pitts Memorial Drive in St. John’s may have noticed work has started again on that highway for this construction season. A three-year, $14.7-million major improvement project for the road started last year, and Abbott said most of the work this year will be focused on the CN Viaduct.
“That’s where most of the work will be done this year, upgrading the viaduct. The barriers will be completed on that section and when that’s all done, into the fall of next year it will all be repaved from Gower Street, right up New Gower into the Kilbride area,” he said.
Abbott said the lighting is expected to be turned on in the next few weeks on the highway, as NL Power finishes its work in the area. He said once the work is complete it will be a big improvement for the road, which sees approximately 25,000 vehicles drive over it every day.