The department is responsible for building and maintaining all public roads in areas of provincial jurisdiction. Additionally, some numbered public roads that pass through municipalities are also built and maintained by the department. ;Arterial highways In 1997 the department changed the way that it finances and builds arterial highways by utilizing what is known as a "design-build-operate" tendering process. This began with the Moncton-Longs Creek section of
Route 2 which started as a toll highway but was changed to a hidden toll arrangement whereby the provincial government pays the charges for vehicle usage and the company that built the highway operates and maintains the road for a period of 25 years after it opened in 2002. The design-build-operate model was used again for the Longs Creek-Edmundston section of Route 2, as well as for the entirety of
Route 95, which opened in 2008 and will be operated and maintained for a period of 25 years by the builder. A third design-build-operate project has been undertaken for
Route 1. ;New Brunswick Highway Corporation Certain arterial highways in the province are owned and operated by the
New Brunswick Highway Corporation, a provincial Crown corporation that was established to do the following: • to acquire, hold, own, use, lease, license, sell, plan, design, finance, refinance, develop, construct, improve, operate, manage, maintain, repair, replace, alter, extend, expand, rehabilitate, dispose of or otherwise deal with • highways, the administration and control of which are given to the Corporation by the Minister of Transportation with the approval of the Lieutenant-Governor in Council, and • systems of toll collection in relation to such highways == See also==