Twinned section of Highway 103 between Upper Tantallon and Ingramport now open

Driving on a section of Highway 103 will look a lot different with the twinned section between Upper Tantallon and Ingramport officially open.

The Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal announced the opening of the westbound (outbound) lanes on social media Wednesday afternoon. They add the eastbound (inbound) lanes are being repaved to reflect the twinning changes with that work scheduled to be finished later this fall.

The final twinning project will see Highway 103 twinned from Upper Tantallon through to Hubbards. Work on the section between Ingramport and Hubbards is ongoing and the Nova Scotia Government says it is scheduled to open in fall 2022.

Once complete, Highway 103 will be continuously twinned from Halifax to Hubbards. Highway 103 is also twinned east of Exit 8 near Chester Basin to west of Exit 9 at Gold River.

Calls have been loud to improve safety on Highway 103 as it has been the subject of numerous, and in some cases, fatal collisions over the past several years.

Twinning projects also taking place on highways 101, 104 Highway twinning projects are also taking place on two other 100-series highways in Nova Scotia. Approximately 10 kilometeres of twinning is currently underway on Highway 101 from Three Mile Plains to Falmouth and crews broke ground on the twinning from Highway 104 from Sutherlands River in Pictou County to Antigonish this past July.

Highway 104 has been the subject of several collisions, including fatalities, with the province reporting in July that nearly 400 collisions occurred on the untwinned portion of the highway from Sutherlands River to Antigonish since 2009.

The twinning construction on Highway 104 is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.

Originally published on Halifax Today.