Maria Canton
Northern News Services

NNSL (July 05/99) - Motorists travelling the 350 km stretch of highway between Rae-Edzo and Enterprise have been saving time since the speed limit was upped from 90 km/h to 100 km/h.

On June 21, the new signs were posted and motorists were free to travel at the higher speed.

Since 1989, the GNWT has spent $184 million upgrading and improving the quality of Highway 3 between the Alberta border and Rae-Edzo, says senior policy analyst for the Department of Transportation Fraser Weir.

"All that time we've left the speed limit at 90 km/h, but the standard and quality of the road has increased enormously -- it is a different highway now."

The change, however, does not include the 84 km stretch from Enterprise to the Alberta border, which was the first part to undergo construction in the late 1980s.

"The department just doesn't feel that the curves and some of the elevations are quite to the same standards as between Enterprise and Rae-Edzo," says Weir.

"It wasn't built as wide and some of the corners aren't as nice as they are in the other section."

The proposal to change the speed limit was brought forward as a private members' bill by Yellowknife South MLA Seamus Henry in December 1998.

When passed, the bill gave Transportation Minister Vince Steen the discretion to set new speed limits at what he felt was reasonable.

Up until then, a 1974 legislation in the Public Highways Act stated that the maximum speed within the territories could only reach 90 km/h.

The 100 km/h speed limit will eventually include the section of highway between Rae-Edzo and Yellowknife, but the construction on the road isn't expected to be complete for another eight to 13 years. Before changing speed limits, a number of criteria -- degree of curvature, super elevation, which is the height at which a car banks when taking a corner and asphalt surfacing -- must be checked, says Rob Nelson, the director of highways and engineering.

Speed limits on gravel roads can only reach a maximum of 90 km/h.

"Once complete, the design criteria of the road between Yellowknife and Rae-Edzo will allow the speed limit to be placed between 100 km/h and 110 km/h," says Nelson.

"Most jurisdictions set speed limits 10 to 20 km below the design speed, so it will be 100 km."

Nelson also says there are plans to look at the remainder of the highways in the territories by the end of summer. The majority of them, however, were designed to the 90 km/h standard.