UPPER NAPPAN - A county councillor, whose riding includes the Cumberland County portion of the Cobequid Pass, can't believe the province is spending so much money on new overhead signage for the 44-kilometre toll highway.
"I think what they had in place was working and was a lot more feasible than spending what they are spending to run electricity to the signs," Kathy Redmond said after Cumberland municipal council's December meeting on Wednesday. "If the figures quoted to me are correct, that could have gone to repair a lot of roads, like the one going into Westchester."
Crews from the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal erected the new electronic signs last week with one being located just before Oxford and the other in the Masstown area.
The signs replace a pair of portable signs put at both ends of the highway after last November's early season snowstorm that stranded several thousand motorists overnight on the road that runs between Thomson Station in Cumberland and Glenholme in Colchester.
Redmond said she was told that running electricity to the new overhead signs is going to cost between $125,000 and $150,000. Considering the signs are only used for a few months a year, she feels the existing portable signs are more than adequate.
"The signs they had there were working, why change them?" asked Redmond.
Redmond feels the province could have saved a lot of money by using solar power on the overhead signs.
Transportation department spokesperson Steve Smith said the cost of the overhead signs was $80,000 - $50,000 for the one in Cumberland and $30,000 for Colchester's.
"These are very large emergency signs and we thought it best to have the reliability of a hard-wired power source," Smith said.
Smith the portable signs were only a temporary measure while the permanent overhead signs were erected. The portable signs required someone to drive out and update them while the overhead signs can be updated remotely from Oxford and Londonderry.
Permanent overhead signage warning of weather conditions on the Cobequid Pass was one of the key recommendations last fall by Opus International Consultants. The consultants also recommended paving cross-cuts between the east and westbound lanes of the highway and upgrading the highway through the Wentworth Valley.
dcole@amherstdaily.com
