Barneys River chief optimistic about twinning
A fire chief lobbying for safer highways in this area says there is hope that twinning will happen.
Joe MacDonald, fire chief for Barneys River, has been leading the charge to twin the section of the Trans Canada Highway between Sutherlands River and Antigonish for the past few years.
He recently attended both public consultation sessions in Pictou County and Antigonish hosted by the province to gauge public opinion on twinning the highways. He said he was pleased with the turnout and is not surprised that a recent Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal report on the meetings showed support was greater for twinning in these areas than the rest of the province.
“People at the meetings were very favourable,” he said, adding he is not surprised to see this area of the province support tolls.
“I have a glimmer of hope and we will have to wait and see what their next step is. We will keep on hammering on about safety. With the upcoming tourism season, there are usually more accidents because traffic is higher and people are not concentrating on driving. It is a bad season for first responders.”
The report states that although twinning highways was not universally accepted through the province, those who attended public meetings in New Glasgow and Antigonish were more in favour of twinning and would like to see it done sooner than later.
“For the majority of residents in these areas, who participated in the consultation process, twinning was definitely the best and only solution to improve the highway,” the report stated. “Given the degree of commitment to this, there was therefore acceptance, (perhaps a reluctant one) and willingness to pay tolls in order for twinning to happen.”
A recent report released from the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal says that twinning the Trans Canada highways is not universally accepted as the best way to improve conditions.
The results are part of public consultations that took place across the province this winter to gauge the public’s opinion on tolling sections Nova Scotia’s highways.
The report says that people expressed concern that twinning the highways would not cut down on problems such as speeding, unsafe passing or distracted driving. Some people felt that money would be better spent if the troubled areas of highways were given extra attention by installing passing lanes and wider shoulders and re-engineering bad areas known for high incidence of accidents.
The province said it expects to have a decision on twinning in the near future.
“Government will be making its decision based on what we heard early next week,” said Geoff MacLellan, minister, Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal.