Route 15 as it passes outside Shediac, New Brunswick at Exit 37. The image shows the wide median that the Province of New Brunswick generally employs on its divided highways. This portion of highway was completed about 1970.
Route 15 only extended from Shediac to Strait Shores until the early 1970s, when the Shediac Four-Lane Highway (the first rural expressway in New Brunswick) was built from Dieppe to Shediac. Its construction was controversial, with critics alleging that it was only built to give Moncton-area politicians better access to their summer cottages in the Shediac area[citation needed]. A two-lane bypass of Shediac itself was built shortly afterward.
The Wheeler Boulevard was developed and constructed through the 1970s and 1980s, and was fully complete by 1989.
A two-lane bypass of Cap-Pele opened to traffic in 1998.[citation needed]
In 2012, a section of this highway between Moncton and Shediac was designated "Veteran's Memorial Highway".[2]