Tolls lifted for Nova Scotia motorists on province’s only tolled section of highway
Posted Dec 16, 2021 04:45:00 PM.
HALIFAX — Nova Scotia motorists no longer have to pay to use the province's only tolled section of highway.
The provincial government said the $4 toll for the Cobequid Pass was lifted at 11 a.m. today for Nova Scotia-registered vehicles.
Tolls will remain, however, for passenger and commercial vehicles registered outside the province in order to help fund maintenance on the 45-kilometre stretch of highway between Amherst, N.S. and Truro, N.S.
The province says there are no plans to increase the remaining tolls, which run from $4 for passenger vehicles to as high as $24 for some trucks, buses and for tractor trailers with multiple axels.
About 50 per cent of passenger vehicles and about 70 per cent of commercial trucks that use the Cobequid Pass are registered out of province.
The pass was built through a public-private partnership and opened in 1997 in an effort to reduce accidents in an area of highway that ran through the Wentworth Valley, formerly referred to as “Death Valley.”
The province says the Cobequid Pass cost about $112.9 million to construct and took 20 months to complete. Last month, Public Works Minister Kim Masland announced that the province had paid off the remaining bonds for the highway.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 16, 2021.
The Canadian Press
