By Roy MacMullinSome provinces take modern autoroutes for granted. Not New Brunswick. Frank McKenna, then-Premier, began a major capital program in the early '90s to upgrade the Trans-Canada Highway to four lanes. It seemed like a good idea at the time. A number of deaths had been caused by collisions, and besides, didn't we deserve highways as good as Quebec and Ontario anyway?
With a small population of 750,000 people, road construction has left the province saddled with debt. The recent burgeoning debt load hasn't stopped our present premier, Shawn Graham, from proposing to spend another $1 billion expanding Route 11 between Shediac and Miramichi into four lanes. Before we allow him to bet the farm on highway construction, perhaps we should examine the implications of this adventure.
1 comment:
Before we expand our highway system, I would like to see an open forum debate into what our future transportation needs should be. We live on a rural two lane road - Route 535 between Cocagne & Bouctouche. Why is it that Europe and Japan with much higher densities of populations can navigate with narrower rural one lane, low speed roadways? We could cut maintenance cost by 1/3 if some roads were changed to rural one lane roads. I won't even go into why the province hasn't approved the ZENN car for use in our province. The world is in transition and we should be part of the change, not running full speed into the past.
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