The province says the tender for previously announced highway twinning projects on the island is expected to be issued within the coming weeks.

Government was responding to a recent online petition launched by the sister of a young woman killed in a highway crash last spring.

Faith Power’s sister Erica, and her boyfriend Kerry Sargent passed away in a collision in central Newfoundland in April.

The tragedy prompted Faith to launch an online petition asking government to extend the divided highway right across the island.

The province’s highways have taken a terrible toll this year, with numerous serious and fatal crashes.

In December of last year, government announced that it was abandoning the previous P3 model for a traditional procurement model.

The province says the tender to twin 15 km of the TCH at Bishop’s Falls and an extension to the divided highway 40 km beyond Whitbourne will be issued in the coming weeks. The first RFP for those projects was originally issued last summer.