Twinned stretch of N.S. highway to open end of summer

After twinning Nova Scotia Highway 103 between Tantallon and Ingramport, the road will soon extend southwest to Hubbards.

“We’re at the home-stretch now we can see the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Isaac Karam, project engineer with N.S. Public Works. “Could be mid-to-late-summer.”

Doubling more than 20 kilometres of road has cost about $120 million.

But Karam says it’s on-track and on-budget.

Getting to this point, has meant a lot of heavy-lifting.

Karam says crews moved more than 2 million cubic meters of material. Completing it will take more than 500,000 tonnes of gravel and 200,000 tonnes of asphalt.

Blasts have removed rock 120 times.

“Dynamite. Big explosions. A lot of dust flying and rocks flying,” said Karam.

Bruce Hetherington pushed for the project.

His son James died in a head-on collision along the highway in 2008.

“I don’t want anybody to go through what we had to go through in 2008,” Hetherington said.

The province has committed to twinning the road between Hubbards and East River and East River to Chester.

Hetherington wants to see it done all the way to Yarmouth.

“People travel it and these are people that live in Nova Scotia,” he said. “The province of Nova Scotia has the authority to make sure they get from A to B safely.”

The province says planning to twin the highway to Chester is still underway. When the project was announced, the province committed to completing it by 2030.

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