MORE YELLOWHEAD HIGHWAY TWINNED

Released on August 24, 2000

A ribbon cutting was held today to mark completion of a new 10.7 km section of

additional twinning on Highway No. 16 (Yellowhead) from west of Lashburn to

east of Marshall.



The $5.8 million newly twinned section starts one kilometre west of Lashburn

and extends to just east of Marshall where it connects to the existing twinned

highway. The paving began in the spring, at a cost of $3.3 million. Grading

was completed last construction season at a cost of $2.5 million. The section

opened to traffic last week.



"This additional 10.7 km of twinning on the Yellowhead Highway improves driver

safety and traffic flow for local residents, commercial traffic and out-of-

province travellers," Highways and Transportation Minister Maynard Sonntag

said. "This is another major twinning step our department has taken on Highway

16 from North Battleford to Lloydminster."



Over $13 million from this year's Highways and Transportation budget is

dedicated to twinning on the national highway system on two sections of Highway

No. 1 and on Highway No. 16.



"The Saskatchewan government has made progress on its own in twinning the

national highways system," Sonntag said. "I hope the federal government will

recognize its responsibility to a national highways system with some funding

that will speed up the twinning of Highways 1 and 16."



Grading will continue this summer on an additional 16.2 km section of twinning

from east of Lashburn to just west of Maidstone, with plans to pave next year.



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For more information, contact:



Ray Connoly, Director

Engineering Projects

Phone: (306) 933-6117

Cell:(306) 230-5272