N.S. highway twinning projects on time, mostly on budget

Nova Scotia's major twinning projects are mostly on budget and on schedule, according to the transportation minister.

Lloyd Hines told reporters on Thursday that work on highways 101, 104 and 107 all remain on track to be complete in 2023. Work on Highway 103 is slightly ahead of schedule and Hines said there is a chance that work could be completed sooner, sometime in 2022.

"I don't want to make any predictions at this time because it's not smart to do that, but my executives are telling me that we're looking very good on the 103 for delivering that somewhat sooner than what we had been looking at," he said.

The work, which is costing in the hundreds of millions of dollars, is about four per cent over budget, said the minister.

"Which is not abnormal for this time of year and it doesn't send the fire alarms off at all," he said.

There's no indication that building materials related to highway construction are going to spike in cost the way lumber has and Hines said that bodes well for the duration of the project work.

Hines said there is a potential wrinkle with the timeline for completing the work along Highway 101 because of the ongoing consideration about how to incorporate an aboiteau into a new overpass outside Windsor.

How that is resolved is ultimately up to other government departments, including Fisheries and Oceans Canada, said Hines, but he remains optimistic a plan will be reached in a way that doesn't interfere with the highway construction.

"So far, so good, but that is a possibility down the road that if we don't get resolution, that our schedule might get pushed out a bit," he said. "But we're certainly not at that point now."

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