Maria Canton
Northern News Services

ENTERPRISE (May 24/99) - In operation for two weeks, the Department of Transportation spent $1.5 million building the new Enterprise Weigh Scales.

"The new scales are a sound expenditure," said Vince Steen, minister of transportation.

"The department has spent $130 million on the reconstruction and paving of the main Highway 1 and 3 corridor over the past 10 years and the cost of the new scales is less than one per cent of the public investment in the highway it protects."

This is the fourth time in 31 years that Enterprise has had new weigh scales built.

Under construction since the early 1990s, Steen officially declared the scales open on May 11.

"The new location has a much larger area in which to deal safely and efficiently with the number of trucks that come through the scales," he said.

Located at the junction of Highway 1 and 2,

the Enterprise scales control most of the truck traffic carrying loads over the southern part of the territorial highway system.

Every vehicle over 500 kg or having a bus classification must report to the scales for weighing and inspection.

The new site is 10 times the size of the old one, employs eight people and has sufficient space to handle expected truck volumes for the next 25 years.

A typical year sees about 17,000 trucks weighing in and undergoing inspections.

The original station was opened in 1968 by the Highways Division of Public Works for weighing their gravel trucks. The Enterprise scales moved locations and buildings in 1971 and again in 1977.

The new scales were constructed in the same location as the ones built in 1971.