Community groups, council continue calls to complete Highway 101 in Digby County

People in Digby County are trying to bring renewed attention to their long-standing call to complete Highway 101 in the southwestern part of Nova Scotia.

Municipality of the District of Digby Warden Linda Gregory said the issue has been a concern for the community even before she joined council 29 years ago.

The stretch of road in question runs between Weymouth and Marshalltown, where Highway 101 goes through multiple residential communities along St. Marys Bay with inconsistent speed limits and without controlled access, a design that would manage vehicles entering or exiting the highway.

"It has been unsafe for nearly 40 years," Gregory said in a phone interview.

The road is travelled by transport trucks and lumber trucks on a daily basis while students wait to be picked up by and are dropped off by school buses, making for dangerous situations, said Gregory.

"People are trying to pass because they don't feel people are going fast enough on that road. When it's often 80 or 90 [kilometre per hour speed limit], so they're doing 110."

Public awareness campaign launched

Throughout her time on council, Gregory said it's been a difficult sell getting the provincial government to finish the highway. The former Liberal government partnered with the federal government on a six-kilometre bypass from Digby to Marshalltown that was completed in 2019, but Gregory said the rest of the road needs to be finished.

The West Nova Chamber of Commerce recently joined the cause to amplify the efforts of community members to raise awareness around the issue.

Dan White, CEO of the chamber, said they're gathering stories from people who have had close calls, or worse, along the highway in hopes of convincing the government to act.

"There's 101 reasons that are valid, but nothing comes close to the safety issues," said White.

"We're having near-death experiences here on a frequent basis."

White, who lives along the highway, has had his own close calls with drivers coming up behind him at high speed as he was pulling into his driveway. He's also come over hills to find people pulling out of driveways that aren't visible from a distance.

No plans to add project to highways plan

Gregory said recent meetings with the local MLA and public works minister have been positive, but council is being told it could be five to 10 years before something happens. The warden is concerned the work on Highway 101 in Digby County is being delayed in favour of expanded twinning efforts in other parts of the province.

"I understand twinning can and needs to be done, but you should complete what you started and then continue working," she said.

"We know they need to still buy properties, still go through stuff, but it's been worked on for too long and it needs to be completed."

The work to complete that section of the highway is not in the provincial government's five-year highways plan, the document that outlines construction projects underway or planned to begin within a five-year window.

A spokesperson for the Public Works Department said projects are prioritized on the basis of safety and traffic volumes. Gary Andrea said in an email that planning continues on bringing the rest of Highway 101 to the same standard as other 100-series highways, but there is no timeline for completion of that work.