Expect delays: What drivers in P.E.I. can expect for roadwork this spring and summer

Islanders and visitors to P.E.I. can expect some travel delays this spring and summer with roadwork taking place across the province.

"We are going to do some bridge construction, some paving and road construction," said Stephen Yeo, chief engineer for the provincial Department of Transportation and Infrastructure.

"We're going to do some intersection upgrades, so there is quite a bit to work to do across the Island." 

A major project the province will work on over the summer is a three-kilometre stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Hazelbrook, east of Stratforfd, that needs repaving due to ruts forming, Yeo said.

Right now, there is ongoing work to realign Water Street in Charlottetown, part of the city's Eastern Gateway project.

The province will also be doing work in the same area. The plan is to eventually change the intersection at the bottom of the Hillsborough Bridge into a displaced left-turning lane, much like where St. Peters Road intersects with the Charlottetown bypass.

"That intersection is going to be upgraded — Riverside Drive, Grafton, and once Water Street is realigned — so that will be some work, but it will be later on in the year and it will be phased over two years," he said.

"We'll do part of it this year, then we will finish the improvements next year."

The intersection needs to be upgraded because, at the peak time for traffic in the evening, vehicles are often backed up down Riverside Drive, Yeo said.

"It'll be more efficient to get traffic movements through there," he said.

"Travel time will be improved and greenhouse gas reductions will happen because of that."

In Summerside, some tenders have yet to be awarded ahead of the summer construction season, but some major projects are already underway, such as the city's east-west housing corridor project.

"A lot of the construction work that is happening this season is more driven by development versus general repair and maintenance, which I guess is a good thing. It is servicing new development, which is something we want in the city," said the city's deputy chief administrative officer J.P. Desrosiers.

"We have a east-west housing project that's a very large undertaking that will be not just a roadway, but a roadway which will open up over 300 acres of developable land connecting the east and west end of our city."