As late as the 1970s Yarmouth was served by scheduled airline service, two rail lines, year round ferry service to the United States and scheduled bus service which, in hindsight was a good thing because the two highways connecting Yarmouth with the rest of the world were, even for the time, narrow, twisty, substandard thoroughfares wandering through every town and village along the way.

 

Today we no longer have scheduled airline service. Not only is the rail service gone but the tracks have been removed.

 

Our once vaunted international ferry service has been turned into a seasonal tourist attraction! Even the scheduled bus service is gone As each year passes, more and more services become centralized in Halifax… especially medical services. People here are regularly making a seven hour return trip just to see a specialist for 10 or 15 minutes! Our two roads are the only remaining link we have with the rest of the province.

 

I have lived in and out of this province for most of my life, giving me a unique opportunity to be an eye witness to how Nova Scotia does things, compared to the rest of the country. It’s NOT a pretty sight. To quote a CBC report: posted in November of 2024, “Just 27 per cent were in “good” or better condition, with the status of the rest classed as “unknown.”

 

I happened to be living in Nova Scotia in the mid 60s when the much vaunted 100 series highways were announced and construction began. I returned 10 years later and was amazed at how little had been completed. It is now over 60 years later and they STILL aren’t competed, even to their original, now positively archaic standards.

 

Much reconstruction has been done, and a lot of improvements have been made, primarily close to Halifax, but government STILL hasn’t seen fit to actually COMPLETE them, so that ALL of us can get some benefit.

 

Regardless of party in power, two primary government goals have been on the table for at least the last 25 years. They are rural expansion and tourism. Both of these goals rely heavily on transportation and yet major infrastructure work to improve access and to make our roads safer fall way behind what is needed.

 

How can you expect people to flock to rural areas if they can’t get back and forth comfortably and safely? How can you put tourist lives in danger when you offer vastly inferior roads to what most people in North America expect?

 

No one needs reminding that the cost of vehicles has escalated significantly as time has moved on, while the vast majority of vehicles built today are designed to drive on modern road surfaces. The majority or rural roads in this province remain unimproved and unpaved and lack necessary maintenance, yet even minimal improvements are rare and getting rarer. Even worse, I am told that there has been a moratorium on the paving of rural roads for over two decades now.

 

For those of us living in Southwest Nova Scotia, no longer having scheduled air service, train service, year round ferry service or even bus service, Highways 101 and 103 are our only lifeline, and yet, of all the 100 series highways, these two lag behind all others when it comes to completion.

As of today, Highway 101 is only twinned as far as Windsor. After that it is still a limited access highway but it becomes two lane with the occasional passing lane. This is how it remains as far as Digby, and from Weymouth to Yarmouth. But the 25+ kilometre section between Digby and Weymouth remains a dangerous, completely unimproved two lane highway with house and business driveways having access directly onto the road. The highway is heavily used for transportation of goods in both directions. For the entire length of this section there is little safe opportunity to pass. Local residents, including seniors and others treat the highway as their neighbourhood street, often driving at 40km/h or less, down to the corner store for a litre of milk! In the 26 years since I returned permanently to Nova Scotia, this section of the highway hasn’t been touched other than for urgent maintenance!

 

Apparently plans have been drawn up to re-route this part of the highway, bringing it up to some semblance of modern standards, but how much longer will we have to wait? I understand that even the land required has yet to be acquired!

 

As for “twinning,” I do not believe that the government has ANY intention of twinning the 101 past Kentville… if that far. For one thing, they would have to replace every single overpass, as I do not believe that any of them are wide enough to allow a modern twinned highway to pass underneath. This includes the very latest installed overpasses. If the government had any future plans to twin, surely they’d have the foresight to start making any new overpasses wide enough to accommodate?

 

Added to the overpasses, I do not believe either the Bear River bridge or the Sissiboo River bridge are wide enough to accommodate a twinned highway.

 

The Bear River bridge was extremely poorly designed. There is a steep descent at both end of the bridge and the eastern end of the bridge has a sharp, almost 90º bend that is dangerous to take at speed, even for cars in good weather.

 

I’m not sure of the current standards being used in North America, but the 101 has a great many curves that are, in my estimation, very dangerous to traverse at the posted speed limit. Twinning would make the inside of those turns even more treacherous. At minimum, any modern highway should allow travel in good weather at the posted speed limit.

 

Finally, as ecology becomes ever more important, we need to take driving habits into consideration. One of the best ways to improve fuel economy, which equates to lower emissions, is to use cruise control whenever possible. This is extremely difficult when driving on two lane highways as you are constantly coming up behind slower traffic and almost always will have to slow down until it is safe to pass, rather than just moving into the other lane. In a perfect world, weather and traffic permitting, we should be able to get on the highway in Yarmouth, set cruise control and not touch it until close to Halifax.

 

I’ll leave the ludicrous lack of a junction between highways 101 and 103 for another day. Suffice it to say, it is ridiculous that someone travelling between Digby and Barrington should have to get off the 101 at Yarmouth, drive on town streets, through three sets of traffic lights just to get on the 103, when joining the two highways would provide a clean transition, at speed, between the two.

 

Undoubtedly others dealing with other so called 100 Series highways have their own stories to tell. There are so many adjectives that can be used here. “Embarrassing,” “uncaring,” “incompetence, “bureaucratic…” I can go on and on, but the best adjective I can use is “farce.”