Stuck in the middle with you

Minister of Highways Happiness Trevor Taylor made another interesting comment on VOCM this morning concerning the Trans-Labrador Highway:

You’ve got 500 km of highway, with Churchill Falls stuck in the middle of it.

You're wondering, "what could possibly be interesting about that?", right?

Well, for starters, the Trans-Labrador Highway is actually 1100 km long, and change. And while Churchill Falls is in the middle(ish) of the Labrador West to Happy Valley-Goose Bay segment, it is not in the middle, or even the middle(ish) of the Trans-Labrador Highway overall.

This new re-imaging of the Trans-Labrador Highway is not unique to the good Minister. Some time last year, "completing" the TLH became re-defined as widening and paving Phase I of the road, the aforementioned Labrador West to HVGB segment.

There are two other Phases; Phase II which runs from the Labrador Straits to Cartwright, and Phase III, still at least notionally planned for, um, "completion" this year, linking Phases I and II.

The fact that Phase I runs through, and links, two government-held districts, let alone the fact that Phases II and III do not share the same electoral geography, of course has absolutely nothing to do with the new, less-ambitious definition of "completing the Trans-Labrador Highway".