Tolls or no tolls, construction on Moncton-Fredericton highway continues

FREDERICTON (July 20, 1999) — The anti-toll-road stance of New Brunswick’s newly elected Conservative government hasn’t slowed construction on the four-lane pay-for-use highway being built between Fredericton and Moncton.

But the rain has.

A spokesperson for the company the province contracted to build and maintain the 195-kilometre highway, Maritime Road Development Corp., said recent construction delays are due to adverse weather.

“There are areas where you get ahead and others where you get behind, for some reason or another,” MRDC communications director Susan Pond told a Halifax newspaper last week.

“But when it all adds up, we’ll be ready for October.”

That’s when 87 more kilometres of the 195-km four-lane route are scheduled to open. The sections are from Longs Creek to Geary, (bypassing Fredericton and Oromocto), Jemseg to Mill Cove, and River Glade to Petitcodiac.

During his election campaign, Premier Bernard Lord promised to renegotiate the agreement between the province and MRDC.

Tolls on the highway are expected to raise $22 million a year for MRDC, a consortium of private companies which has a 30-year lease with the province to operate the highway.