‘It’s dangerous’: Ruts to be removed from section of Cape Breton highway

The ruts on a stretch of Highway 125 in Cape Breton are scheduled to be repaved.

The Nova Scotia government says it will soon remove ruts from a section of a busy Cape Breton highway.

More than 10 kilometres of Highway 125, including on and off ramps, will be repaved this construction season between Sydney and North Sydney.

“I am aware of the growing concerns about that section of highway, and with safety always top of mind we will issue a tender as soon as possible to solve this problem,” said Public Works Minister Fred Tilley in a provincial news release.

“This is an important stretch of highway that Cape Bretoners count on, and they deserve to know this road is well maintained.”

Ruts have been a long-standing issue on the highway, which the province says can be caused by traffic, age of asphalt, and conditions in the base of the road.

Tilley, who is also MLA for the area, added that any disruption to traffic flow while the work is being done will be worth it.

“The engineers that have looked at this have said the way to fix this is we’re going to tear it up and we’re going to start to do it from scratch,” said Tilley, the Progressive Conservative MLA for Northside-Westmount.

“I’m assuming they’ll do one lane at a time, which will leave the other lanes open for traffic flow. There will be a little bit of pain, of course, as there is with any construction, but at the end of the day it’s short-term pain for the long-term gain of fixing that highway.”

The chief of the North Sydney Volunteer Fire Department is also welcoming word the highway ruts will soon be repaired.

“Over the years, we’ve had a number of accidents. We haven’t had any lately,” said Lloyd MacIntosh.

“But we’ve had serious accidents. We’ve had fatal accidents on that road, and some directly attributable to the ruts in the road.”

The province says a tender for the project will be issued in the spring and it will be completed by late fall.

“It’s dangerous. We’re glad it’s getting fixed”, MacIntosh said.

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