New interchange on Highway 101 aims to get trucks off residential roads, boost economy

On any given day, about 130 tractor trailers roll along Highway 1 through the communities of Coldbrook and Cambridge in the Annapolis Valley on their way to and from the Michelin tire plant in Waterville, N.S.

Peter Muttart, mayor of the Municipality of the County of Kings, is glad to have the business and jobs that come with the plant, but says the heavy traffic also travels by homes, schools and small business.

"It's not good for the roads, it's not good for the community. It's not good for the pollution that takes place as a result and it's not good for the good people that are driving those trucks who want to get to their destination more quickly and more safety," he said in an interview Monday.

That's the same day the federal and provincial governments announced at the Waterville Fire Hall they will spend $21.8 million and $25.3 million, respectively, on a new interchange and connector roads on Highway 101 that will create a more direct route for truck traffic to the Michelin plant, getting it out of the residential areas.

The new Exit 14A, which is expected to be complete in three years, will fall between Exit 14 in Coldbrook and Exit 15 in Berwick.

Nova Scotia Public Works Minister Kim Masland said improved safety was a big selling point for the project, but so is the economic development the work will create.

"It's opening up lands for industrial park development, it's fabulous for the Annapolis [Valley] First Nation community and the municipality," she said in an interview.

Nastasya Kennedy, a band councillor for Annapolis Valley First Nation, said the announcement is significant for her community on two fronts.

There is only one way in and out of the First Nation, which creates safety concerns, she said, and the new connector road will provide another entry.

And because the First Nation owns land on either side of the highway where the interchange is planned, Kennedy said they hope to create business and job opportunities.

"We'll be developing a big truck stop and retail area and we have different phases that we'll announce later on," she said in an interview.

The municipality has its own development plans. Muttart said the municipality owns land near the planned interchange that will allow for the development of a business park.

"Michelin Tire has shared with us over the years that many of the services that they have to go out of province for or into the metropolitan area for, they would much prefer to have available to them locally," he said in an interview.

"We can now provide a business park that will establish those types of businesses. We certainly hope to attract that kind of business"

Kings-Hants MP Kody Blois said the traffic along Highway 1 is a regular issue he hears about when speaking to constituents in the area.

He called Monday's announcement "a triple bottom line win."

"You've got a win for the residential homeowners here in the Cambridge Coldbook area, you've got an opportunity to partner with First Nations in the Annapolis Valley First Nation and this also supports the competitiveness of Michelin," he said in an interview.

Improving access to the Waterville plant is part of what helped trigger the money from Ottawa, which comes via the National Trade Corridor Fund.

This is the second major government announcement in about a month that benefits Michelin. In March, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau joined Premier Tim Houston to announce funding to support an expansion at the company's Bridgewater plant, near where another new highway interchange is in the works.

Masland said the connection to the company was influential in Monday's announcement, "but it's not all about Michelin."

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