According the Transportation department approximately 170 kilometres of pavement has been laid, and this year 40 kilometres of pavement, carried over from last year, will be put down.
In addition, work will begin on two new 80-kilometre contracts awarded to Humber Valley Paving this Spring.
Transportation minister Tom Hedderson said this year’s contract has an expected completion date for the end of the 2012 paving season.
“This year we are spending 76 million, so we are doing some substantial paving,” minister Hedderson said.
The contracts are out so the minister hopes the paving will start soon because there is carry over work to be completed and materials to gather for the next year’s paving season.
“I couldn’t give you a time because that depends on the contractor,” he added.
The completion date is set for 2014, and minister Hedderson said everything is “perfectly on track.”
He said the second last contract was awarded and the contractors will be getting everything ready to do the majority of that paving next year.
There is still another contract to award and he hopes it will follow the same pattern.
“It’s calming when you see an end in sight,” he said. “I remember when we first started paving a couple kilometres here and there, and it would seem like it would go on forever. But we have a significant part of phase 1 done, there’s only one contract left (to award) so I’m delighted.”
Gravel sections
With the weather being so unpredictable this year, minister Hedderson said there were some complications with the gravel section (Phase 2 and 3) of the highway.
“What happens is it gets mucky and then it freezes and you can’t get graters on it,” he said. “The transition between the months has been difficult.”
He said reports are indicating the road has dried out and the graters have been working the sections extensively
“We have both phases listed as in good condition,” he said.
Since April, he said, there have been about 1,000 tonnes of crushed stone placed between Port Hope Simpson, and another 700 tonnes placed on the Cartwright access road.
He said the plan is to continue placing down the stone and get additional stone for Labrador roads through the provincial roads program.
As of right now he said it’s too early to talk about paving the two sections.
Minister Hedderson said the plan is to finish Phase 1 first and move on from there.
But it has been on his mind.
“This year I will be going back to government and getting some direction and when I get that direction we will be releasing that information to the people,” he said. “The companies that are biding on these projects are set up in Labrador, so we know it will be an easy transition between Phase one and where we are going from there.”
