Thursday, October 2, 2008

Super Highway

I can't begin to figure out how many thousands of kilometers I've driven on New Brunswick highways over the past twenty years but it's substantial. Like many people, much of our driving happens in the summer during vacation time. We've made a trip to Ontario almost every year since we've lived here. This summer was no exception. We probably put on over 4,000 km on this trip alone. About a third of the journey happens on New Brunswick highways, so I've gotten to know the road between Grand Bay-Westfield and Edmundston quite well over the years. The drive through New Brunswick always used to be the worst part of the trip, mainly because of the poor state of the two-lane Trans Canada Highway. Not anymore. Today the drive through our province is by far the best part of the journey.

This summer we decided to go through the States on our way to Ontario. As the crow flies, it's a shorter, more direct route through Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and upstate New York. Add to that the saving of almost 30 cents a litre for gas and traveling south of the border makes sense. If you've done the trip you know how pretty it is driving through New England too. But I had forgotten about the winding roads and the towns you hit every five miles. It may be scenic but it's a long, hard drive. After spending a full day motoring through the back roads of New England, we had had enough and the next day changed course and took the Interstate right to the Canadian Border in Niagara Falls. In many ways, driving through New Brunswick used to be like that, but again not anymore.

On the trip home this summer we followed our normal route through Canada and got our first taste of the fully completed, super highway through New Brunswick. The last 98 kilometres of the four-lane Trans-Canada in the province opened last fall. Now the entire 516 km stretch of highway from the Nova Scotia border to the Quebec border is a smooth, divided, four-lane highway. It's safer to drive and much faster. I bet we saved close to an hour on the drive down from Edmundston. Usually there isn't much to see along these super highways, just pavement, rocks and trees. But this road manages to retain some of the scenery of the St. John River Valley with vistas of rolling hills and glimpses of the river here and there. It's just a joy to ride on compared to the bumpy highways through much of Quebec.

This highway did not come cheap. It was built in chunks over the years with funding from both levels of government with a total cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Our premier says the new four-lane Trans-Canada is paving New Brunswick's way to a brighter, safer, self-sufficient future. But there are some concerns over the new road. The town of Hartland is complaining that the number of tourists visiting the longest covered bridge in the world is lower this summer because of a lack of proper signs on the new highway. That problem is being looked into.

The new highway also has long stretches of wildlife fencing on both sides of the road. That'll go a long way to improving safety, especially with a speed limit of 110 km per hour along the entire highway. You can't appreciate just how good this road is until you drive it.

Of course that thrill of traveling on a new highway ended abruptly when we took the Highway 7 exit to Saint John. Yes the road has been improved a lot over the last 20 years and crews are out right now putting up moose fencing, but it's no Trans-Canada. At least not yet. The Welsford bypass is going ahead and one day I'm sure the entire highway between the provinces largest city and new energy hub, and the capital city, will become a four lane super highway too. Until then enjoy the new Trans Canada and give credit to the province for making it a reality.

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