'Stop doing these mega projects:' Engineer sees better use for $272M than Route 11 upgrades
Viola Pruss | CBC News | Posted: March 1, 2017 11:28 PM | Last Updated: March 2, 2017
UNB professor Eric Hildebrand says the government should improve road safety provincewide
There are other ways to make New Brunswickers safer on the roads besides pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into twinning a single highway, an engineer said Wednesday.
Eric Hildebrand, a professor of civil engineering at UNB Fredericton, said he is concerned about the $272 million in federal and provincial money being spent to upgrade Route 11.
"It's time to stop doing these mega projects, because as a province we have all kinds of financial problems," Hildebrand said. "And as a taxpayer, I think we need to be very smart about how we spend our money."
- Liberals aim to twin Route 11 from Shediac to Miramichi
- Feds, province ante up $272M for Route 11 upgrades
The government announced in January that it will twin a stretch of Highway 11 between Shediac and Bouctouche and build a new bypass near Miramichi. The projects are supposed to deal with rising traffic levels and reduce collisions and fatalities, the province has said.
Rumble strips, line markings
But Hildebrand said the money could be spent to improve road safety across the province, through smaller safety measures such as centre-line rumble strips, brighter signage, and more frequent painting of lane markings
Hildebrand said it would cost $400 to $500 a kilometre to grind rumble strips in the centre line of the highway. These would prevent people from drifting into oncoming traffic by creating a loud noise when wheels go over them.
Several other jurisdictions already use the strips reduce head-on collisions, and "they are very effective," he said.
New Brunswick could also build more passing lanes, or two-plus-one designs, where drivers could pass a vehicle on a third lane for a couple of kilometres before the lane switches to the other direction, he said.
At busy interchanges, street lights are also effective in reducing accidents, he said.
But the most cost-effective options remain more frequent repainting of line markings, Hildebrand said, and using brighter materials for traffic signs.
The brighter signs are more expensive, "but on a dark and stormy night, they are much more effective," he said.
Funding announcement
Hildebrand said he has not approached the government about his concerns.
Bill Fraser, the minister of transportation and infrastructure, said Wednesday that Hildebrand's suggestions were valid and would provide some relief but they wouldn't address all collisions.
"For instance, painted lines and rumble strips don't eliminate accidents with moose," he said. "We made it a clear commitment of the government that Highway 11 was a priority."
He added that the government is spending significant amounts on projects elsewhere, including $94 million project to build a bridge in Miramichi,
He added that the spending on highway twinning will create 2,500 jobs during construction and help businesses by providing them with better access to their markets.
The high cost of the Highway 11 work is due in part to 14 bridges, underpasses and overpasses that will be needed as part of the updates to the highway.
Work is already underway to twin 20 kilometres from Shediac River to south of Bouctouche, an area that includes part of Premier Brian Gallant's provincial riding and federal Liberal cabinet minister Dominic LeBlanc's constituency.
The province is also buying land for an 11-kilometre for a new bypass heading into Miramichi, part of his riding.
On Tuesday, he reiterated the province's goal to twinning all of Route 11, a project that was previously estimated to cost $945 million.
Documents obtained by the CBC in 2015 showed that traffic counts in the central sections of the stretch – where no twinning is confirmed so far – were below the threshold required for the province to consider twinning, and collision rates were "fairly low."
Fraser said there had been 813 collisions in the central section of the road between 1999 to 2012, as well as 234 collisions and 11 fatalities in the 20 kilometres now under construction.
Overbuild highways
Hildebrand said he understands residents along the highway are concerned about road safety.
He also said divided highways have been proven to reduce the number of injury collisions and fatalities.
"It's just that there are other things you can do that are much cheaper," he said.
He added the province's road system is already "way overbuilt" given the size and economy of New Brunswick, and the province should make decisions based on objective engineering studies.
"For that kind of money you can do a lot good for the whole provincial system rather than just one isolated corridor," he said.