Nova Scotia Highway 104

Trans-Canada Highway section

From the inter-provincial border at Fort Lawrence to Lower South River east of Antigonish, Highway 104 is a four-lane divided freeway with posted speed limit of 110 kilometres per hour (70 mph). Shortly after the TCH enters the province (continuing from New Brunswick Highway 2) and becoming Highway 104, the freeway reaches Amherst, arcing to the west around the town. Beyond Amherst, the highway enters the Cobequid Mountains, passing the communities of Oxford and Thomson Station.

East of Thomson Station at the highway's first of several interchanges with the parallel Trunk 4 (Exit 7), it reaches the 35 km (22 mi)-long tolled Cobequid Pass section, with the highway's only rest areas and the toll plaza located roughly at the midpoint of the official toll portion (which is actually only tolled between Exits 8 and 10), which ends at Exit 12, another interchange with Trunk 4, in Masstown. From Masstown, the highway runs east and northeast for 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) to the rural community of Onslow, near Truro, and interchanges with Highway 102, a four-lane divided freeway and the main route connecting the TCH with Halifax and southern Nova Scotia.

Highway 104 continues for 55 kilometres (34 mi), past Westville, to Highway 106, a branch of the Trans-Canada Highway that connects to Prince Edward Island via a ferry. The highway then reaches Stellarton and New Glasgow, with the highway passing through Stellarton and New Glasgow being located just to the north.^[2] East of the two towns, Highway 104 runs east for 55 kilometres (34 mi) to Antigonish. The freeway ends 8.4 kilometres (5.2 mi) beyond Antigonish and narrows to a two-lane road near Dagger Woods.^[2] As of 2026, work is underway to twin the highway east to the Paqtnkek Mi’kmaw Nation.^[4]

From the end of the freeway section at Highway 316, the highway runs east for 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) to Pomquet Forks as a Super 2 and remains as a controlled access highway, although there are several at-grade intersections. East of Pomquet Forks, the highway runs east for 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) to Heatherton as an uncontrolled access highway (formerly Trunk 4) and speed limit reduces 90 kilometres per hour (55 mph). Past Heatherton, the highway runs east for 29 kilometres (18 mi) to Auld's Cove and speed limit increased back to 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph). At Auld's Cove, the highway becomes an uncontrolled access highway with a posted speed limit of 70 kilometres per hour (45 mph) and begins a concurrency with Trunk 4. It crosses the Strait of Canso along the 1.4-kilometre (1,400-metre; 0.87-mile) Canso Causeway to Port Hastings on Cape Breton Island. At Port Hastings, the highway intersects Trunk 4, Trunk 19 and Highway 105 at a roundabout where Highway 105 proceeds east carrying the Trans-Canada Highway designation.^[2]

Cape Breton Island section

From the roundabout at Port Hastings, there is an 8-kilometre (5.0 mi) gap in Highway 104, which is connected by Trunk 4, passing the town of Port Hawkesbury. The highway reappears at the Exit 43 interchange for Trunk 4 in Melville, just outside of Port Hawkesbury.^[2] A Highway 104 bypass from Port Hastings to Melville has been proposed in the past. Concept designs have shown a new alignment of 4-lane freeway being built around the northwest side of Port Hastings, crossing Highway 105 at a new interchange near an electrical substation. The new alignment of Highway 104 would proceed east and then southeast approximately following a power line corridor to the Exit 43 interchange in Melville.

From Port Hawkesbury, the highway runs east as a controlled-access super-2 for 34 kilometres (21 mi) to its current eastern terminus at an at-grade intersection with Trunk 4 in River Tillard, near St. Peters. An extension of Highway 104 from River Tillard to Sydney River has been proposed in the past. The Nova Scotia provincial government has designated the entire length of Highway 104 from Fort Lawrence to River Tillard as a "strategic highway" to qualify for federal cost-sharing of maintenance and future upgrades. This designation has also been applied to the remaining Trunk 4 corridor in Cape Breton along the south shore of Bras d'Or Lake from St. Peters to Sydney River. It is eventually envisioned that the Trans-Canada Highway will follow the entire length of Highway 104 from Amherst to Sydney River as a 4-lane freeway, upgraded from the existing two-lane freeway and uncontrolled access sections of the highway.^[2]

Upgrading to freeway

The western portion of the highway was upgraded to the present four-lane freeway in stages: The first parts were reconstucted (mostly by twinning) in three separate sections from the New Brunswick border to Thomson Station (KM 0 to 49), from Masstown to Salt Springs (KM 92 to 146), and from Westville Road to Plymouth (KM 159 to 166) and were completed by the early 1990s.

The freeway gap between Thomson Station and Masstown (KM 49 to 92) was closed when the tolled Cobequid Pass section (built on a new alignment) opened on November 15, 1997,^[5][6] with the gap from Salt Springs to Westville Road (KM 146 to 159) being closed when a freeway segment built on a new alignment opened at about the same timeframe.

In the 21st Century, the freeway was extended eastwards when the sections from Plymouth to Pine Tree (KM 166 to 174) and from Pine Tree to Sutherlands River (KM 174 to 177) were twinned and opened in 2011 and 2012 repectively. On September 19, 2012, a separate freeway section was opened from Addington Forks to South River Road (KM 219 to 228) to bypass Antigonish, where there were three signalized intersections along the previous alignment. This section was extended east a short distance to KM 232 near Dagger Woods and opened on October 22, 2016.

The final section to complete the present length of freeway was the gap between Sutherlands River to Addington Forks (KM 177 to 219), which had a staggered opening between May 18 (when a 10 km (6 mi) stretch opened from Barney's River Station to James River) ^[7] and July 25, 2023, when the adjacent sections opened.^[8]

Two freeway rest areas opened near kilometre marker 71 (one for each direction) just west of the Cobequid Pass toll station in 2025. Both feature washrooms and sitting-out areas,^[9] and are the only such facilities along the highway.

As of 2026, the aforementioned work to twin the highway east to the Paqtnkek Mi’kmaw Nation is underway.^[4]