Nova Scotia gets into piking

Nova Scotia has private group funding $80m toll road

You don't need to be a Los Angeles, a Tokyo, or a Toronto to borrow and build a toll facility to improve your highways. You can be Truro, Nova Scotia!

Ground was broken recently on construction of a C$113 million ($80m) 28 mile (45km) tolled expressway, called Highway 104 near Truro that should radically improve transport for the whole Canadian pensinsula province of Nova Scotia. And given the importance of the large container port at Halifax to Canada's transport links with Europe, the new road should provide benefits to trade with other provinces.

Safety was a major issue generating public support for the toll road, according to Tom Peck, a spokesman for the Nova Scotia transport department. The existing 2-laner winding through the hilly Wentworth Valley of the central spine of the isthmus is notorious for its high rate of accidents — 684 accidents involving 198 injuries and 48 fatalities in the past ten years. The circuitous 33.5 mile (54km) mile road that has frontages to homes, farms and businesses will be replaced with a full 4-lane limited access expressway on a completely new alignment which cuts travel distance 17 percent and travel time probably by a third. Based on past experience the accident rate has been forecast to be reduced as much as three-quarters.

The expressway will have five interchanges and cross a dozen streams and small rivers and is due for completion in 20 months. It will be the last section of the main highway into the province to be "twinned" as they say in these parts. Highway 104 links the major Nova Scotian population centers of Halifax and Sydney with Quebec and the New England states of the U.S. via another 'maritime' province New Brunswick. The 21,400 sq ml (55,500 sq km) province of Nova Scotia has around 900,000 people. Coal, gypsum, barite and salt are mined, fishing and fish processing are major industries, as well as dairying, fruit, forestry. As in many remote spots tourism is of growing importance. The area was settled by the French in 1605 and contested by London and Paris over the centuries but under the British was the first of the provinces to be given self-government in 1848.

The province was prompted to investigate private sector involvement and tolling by a 1993 decision by Ottawa to cut back national support for highway construction, spokesman Peck says.

An opinion survey conducted in 1994 found far stronger support for tolls than for fuel taxes. 66 percent of those surveyed supported tolls for major highways in Nova Scotia so long as the monies were tied to the financing of a particular project. 58 percent supported tolling of existing highways if the proceeds were used for repaving, maintenance and other improvements to the tolled roads. By comparison only 22 percent favored the use of the fuel tax to raise money for the construction and maintenance of highways. The Canadian Automobile Association also reported strong support among its members for tolls as compared with taxes.

Toll plaza location was controversial. It was first proposed to place the mainline toll plaza near Oxford several miles west of the new construction on an already 'twinned' section of roadway. Local traffic wishing to avoid the toll would have had to go through the township of Oxford and take a parallel local road called Route 204. The toll plaza is now being built midway along the new roadway.

As far back as 1990 the provincial government announced a decision to build an expressway standard highway from the end of the existing 'twinned' highway at Thomson Station and Truro and five alternate routes were the subject of public review and environmental assessment 1991-1993. The route chosen is the most westerly of five possibles studied. Property owners immediately affected opposed the routes but communities nearby generally wanted the expressway route nearest them for its economic and accessibility benefits.

Only in January 1994 when it became apparent government funding was inadequate was private money sought based on tolls. By mid-1994 seven private sector groups had expressed interest. Arthur Andersen & Company was hired by the province as its financial adviser and proposed the mixed public and private funding that has been adopted. Three consortia submitted formal proposals and in November 1995 Atlantic Highways Corporation was selected. It is led by Canadian Highways International Corp (CHIC) the company developing Highway-407, the northern toll road bypass of the Toronto metro area, together with two local construction companies, Nova and Tidewater.

The province will put in C$55 million and Atlantic Highways will raise the remaining capital funds needed, about C$60m. Tolls will initially be C$2 per car and C$3/axle for trucks. Trucks are expected to generate over half toll revenues. Major maintenance including resurfacing of the new highway is the responsibility of the private sector operator, though in an interesting twist the state highway administration is doing routine minor maintenance for a fee of C$650k from Atlantic Highways.

Projected traffic volume is an average 6,000 vehicles a day. 24 percent are trucks, two-thirds of these originating or destined out of province. Traffic volumes were too low to allow fully toll-based financing and there was concern that much higher tolls might encourage some through traffic to take the existing non-tolled road. Development is being encouraged along it by relaxing access restrictions.

Nova Scotia's transport minister Richie Mann says: "This partnership with the private sector will allow us to achieve our goals — a four lane median divided highway at reduced cost, an expedited schedule, a reasonable toll rate, and non-recourse financing that limits the financial liability of the province of Nova Scotia."

The local construction companies that are partners with Canadian Highways International Corp in the syndicate are building the new highway — due for completion by December 1997. Engineering and design work which only started in January this year is also being handled by local NS firms. Barclays Bank of Canada arranged finance. (Contacts: Tom Peck, Nova Scotia govt tel 902 424 8687, Valerie Morley for Altantic Highways Corp 416 967 3702x11)