SASKATCHEWAN CALLS ON FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO ASSIST TWINNING NATIONAL HIGHWAYS

Highways and Transportation Minister Judy Bradley, speaking at the

Western Canada Roadbuilders annual conference in Victoria, called on

the federal government to cost-share twinning Saskatchewan's national

highways.



"The federal government needs to immediately start cost-sharing the

upgrading and twinning of Canada's National Highways, including

funding to help Saskatchewan complete twinning the TransCanada Highway

from border to border and the Yellowhead Highway to the Alberta

border," Bradley said.



Saskatchewan is committed to complete twinning within 14 years. In

1997 a 92 kilometre section of the Yellowhead Highway between

Saskatoon and North Battleford was twinned. This year the province

announced it will begin work on twinning 27 kilometres of the

TransCanada near Gull Lake and 21 kilometres at Indian Head.



"We just announced 48 kilometres of twinning estimated to cost

$20 million," Bradley said. "If we had a meaningful cost-shared

program with the federal government we could double the amount of

twinning being done this year and have our two major highways twinned

in seven or eight years."



While speaking at the Western Canada Roadbuilders and Heavy

Construction Association Bradley said the federal government has

played a large role in causing Saskatchewan's roads and highways

to deteriorate. Changes to federal regulations governing

railways have led directly to the acceleration of branch line

abandonment and dramatically increased the amount of heavy-truck

traffic on Saskatchewan highways.



"We are calling on the federal government for highway assistance

in two critical areas," Bradley said. "First to complete

twinning our sections of Canada's National Highway System and

secondly to help rebuild our rural highways being destroyed by

the transfer of freight from rail to road."



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For more information, contact:



Bernie Churko

Highways and Transportation

Regina

Phone: (306) 787-4866