Next step for Cornwall bypass is environmental assessment

With the route for the Cornwall bypass, west of Charlottetown, finalized, an environmental assessment will be the next step in the process.

The bypass is intended to reduce heavy truck traffic and congestion through Cornwall and make it safer for drivers there.

The 18 affected landowners were informed about the route at a meeting Wednesday night.

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"We showed the property owners the alignment we've chosen, and the consultant showed why that route was chosen," said P.E.I. chief engineer Stephen Yeo.

"Now it's just in the next few weeks and months, that our property section staff will be in contact with each and every one of them to start negotiations to acquire the land."

The environmental assessment will get underway as those negotiations are going on. That assessment should be complete by next July.

Work started on phase one

Yeo said the route chosen was the best of four options, with fewer environmental issues while affecting a minimum number of homes.

Work has already begun on two roundabouts at Maypoint and Poplar Island, to improve traffic flow out of Charlottetown. The completed bypass will include another roundabout at North River and five overpasses on the new highway going around Cornwall.

Yeo hopes with the environmental assessment complete in July construction will start next summer and be complete by the fall of 2019.

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