Good work. Keep it up.

even if its 20 km a year. in twenty years its 400 km of freeway.

Just a few days ago two lives were lost on a two lane stretch in a fiery head on collision! Let’s move this project ahead as fast as possible. We generate enough wealth for Victoria to warrant having a safer 4-lane highway from here to Cache Creek. Why does it take so much time?

With this addition what fraction of the 440km is now 4-lane?

There are a number of things wrong with this picture.

1. The expansion does not go to the Old Cariboo Highway. It stops short of the turn off to Aspen Grove Gold Course.

2. $17 Million dollars for approx. 2 KM of highway is pretty bloody costly, especially when it doesn’t serve any useful purpose except to spend money that is in the Highways budget.

3. Very little traffic goes to or from the Port of Prince Rupert via road. 90% of it goes via Rail. If you need to spend money on highways then it should be spent on Highway 16 West. Not 97 South.

4. Liquid

4. Liquid Natural Gas, and Oil will travel by Pipeline or Rail, not by Highway.

5. 800 to 900 trucks daily, is in fact only about 18 trucks per hour in each direction, which to me seems awful high. Are we fudging numbers here??

6.BC’s Northern Resource Communities have been linked to Asia, and the world for approx. 100 years, via rail, air, and road. This is nothing new. Where the hell does Stone think all the products from the Pulp Mills, lumber mills, mines, etc; goes??

There are a number of things wrong with this picture.

1. The expansion does not go to the Old Cariboo Highway. It stops short of the turn off to Aspen Grove Gold Course.

2. $17 Million dollars for approx. 2 KM of highway is pretty bloody costly, especially when it doesn’t serve any useful purpose except to spend money that is in the Highways budget.

3. Very little traffic goes to or from the Port of Prince Rupert via road. 90% of it goes via Rail. If you need to spend money on highways then it should be spent on Highway 16 West. Not 97 South.

Okay, what about those 1950’s railway underpasses between here and Quesnel? Fancy four lanes ending and beginning with those dinosaurs. Anybody know anything?

I read last year that the next 4-laning will be a bypass around Quesnel which can no longer tolerate the heavy traffic right through town.

There are long stretches of 4-lanes already on 97 South where most needed for safety. If anyone would listen to the naysayers Prince George would not have gotten any improvements like twinned bridges and so forth. The money comes out of the highways budget of the Province. If we keep saying that we do not need/deserve any improvements the money will simply be used elsewhere, i.e. no decrease in the budget!

Those railway underpasses are another safety hazard as are a couple of right angle curves right next to rock bluffs and crosses which are placed where the latest fatalities happened!

Obviously the overpasses will be reconstructed, naysayers notwithstanding.

http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/cariboo_connector/

Here is a downloadable PDF document outlining the project and its progress.

bypass Quesnel? death first. long live Quesnel.

(and it’s haywire planning concept)

“especially when it doesn’t serve any useful purpose except to spend money that is in the Highways budget.”
Actually that long hill (albeit gradual) heading towards town from the old Cariboo highway was a terrible place for traffic backing up behind trucks. With the crest at the top it was also a dangerous place for passing. Add in the increase of traffic (or intersection at least) for the new Boundary road and I would say that there are alot of reasons for this to be fourlaned.

Good points Palopu;

No one mentions the fact it will cost twice as much to maintain and plough four lane highways rather than two lane highways during the winter months. Those cost will be ongoing for our kids to pay!

I think four lane freeways are a great idea for the lower mainland with it’s high traffic volume, up here not so much! Waste of money like that overpass by Bednesti. What’s the traffic volume on that road, because I have never seen a logging truck use it. Maybe they should just permanently park a logging truck on that overpass, it would make me feel better seeing something use it!

Stop at the overpass for awhile instead of just ripping by, there is traffic. Four lane makes for a more relaxed easier drive. It is a busy corridor. Cuts down on the double line passing.

Palopu: That’s probably a count during the scale open hours. Try driving that highway a few times and you’ll soon see how many trucks are using it. Or better yet, sit beside the highway for a couple of hours and count them. That will give you a better understanding of just how busy the highway is.

PrinceGeorge: Just because it was a two lane, doesn’t mean much. If its not divided, traffic from one side will always be at risk from traffic coming the other way, even across four lanes.

Especially if someone wants to cross the line!

Give more, you are correct. Even with a four lane which does have a median separating the two lanes in one direction from the other two lanes going in the opposite direction it has happened that a vehicle crossed the median and ran into trouble, but it is rare.

Four lanes are always a lot safer than two.

Nothing is 100% safe but since towns in the whole province are annually competing for money to get their highways improved we have to be glad for now when we are getting a slice or two as well! There is only that much funding in the pot.

I appreciate every new stretch of 4-lane, every new passing lane and every bit of intersection improvement which brings us more in line what has been the accepted norm in Kamloops, Kelowna and elsewhere.

Therefore, three cheers for the latest improvements!

Sky rocketing B&Es in PG, women being assaulted in our parks and on our pathways (a place where no woman should walk alone)! While PG is not the most dangerous city in Canada it still is plenty crime ridden and dangerous!

Phase 1 twinning $240 million, phase 2 twinning $200 million… hmm… almost half a BILLION dollars, yeah I can think of better things to spend that much money on!

You got that right People #`1. Someone somewhere is getting some lucrative highway contracts from the Government, whether we need the improvements or not.

I have driven between Pr George and Vancouver many, many times in the past five years, and I can tell you there is hardly any traffic on this road. Especially between Cache Creek, and Prince George. In fact on one occasion I drove 10 Kilometres and only counted 18 cars.

People who think Highway 97 is busy need to spend sometime on the Freeway in Vancouver. Now that’s busy::::

There is not much traffic on Highway 16 East either. In fact the busiest Highway is 16 West, and that is where they are spending the least money.

The whole area from 100 Mile House to Ft St John, to Prince Rupert, Kitimat, and all places in between has a population of some 305,000 people.

So with 305,000 people spread out over thousands of square miles, could some explain to me where the traffic comes from and where it is going.

There is no such thing as a busy highway in North Central BC. Especially in the past 10/15 years.

Time to wake up and smell the roses.

The new Port Mann bridge cost about three billion, just to put things in the proper perspective.

The City’s 2013 Police Protection budget is only $20.4 million, 22 times smaller than the amount of money spent on twinning that darn highway…just to put things into perspective ;-)

Port Mann has more traffic than 97 North

I don’t know about the need to four way through the Pine Pass. That is a wee bit of stretch. But what is urgently needed is a shoulder to the road, and maybe if they got one of those shoulders like they get down south then a white line. North of the Pine River is horrendous and very dangerous in the winter with only enough room for two trucks to scrape paint as they pass through the narrows.

If one goes for a drive around Vancouver Island not only do they have shoulders on the road, but they also have a center line that is spaced like a foot and a half wide… and they get no snow 6-months of the year on their roads.

My top five safety upgrades:

#1) Widen the road adding a three foot shoulder to either side of the road north of the Pine River. If a truck breaks down in the winter its a very dangerous situation… passing a wide load in winter is near impossible… it limits fabrication opportunities for Price George for oil and gas projects.

#2) Eliminate the old dangerous bridges at the Parsnip and Salmon rivers with new ones like they build at Stoner Creek. Something an drill rig could be transported over.

#3) A passing lane south bound just north of the old Salmon Forest Service Road North of town, and a passing lane from Mud River to the Blackwater turn off east bound just west of town. Both of these are needed to break up the traffic as they are bottle neck locations due to long step grade issues.

#4) An extension from the new Boundary Road to an overpass over the rail crossing in the Danson Industrial Site setting up for an eventual new Fraser Crossing for a future ring road that bi-passes Peden Hill for industrial trucks.

#5) A road shoulder on the Hart highway from the Hart Mall to the Bridge and a walking and bicycle path the full length.

After the safety issue are dealt with then a Quesnel bi-pass and a PG south Fraser crossing would be ideal.

The Old Port Mann Bridge handled 127000 vehicles per day. 8% of these were trucks, so that’s 10,160 trucks per day.

When you compare this traffic to what is actually taking place between Cache Creek and Prince George it makes one wonder what the hell is going on.

Why would anyone want to indicate that 900 trucks per day over a scale was an indication of how busy this Highway is???

This is nothing more than a huge spending spree by the Government, lucrative contracts for contractors, and a bid to be seen to be doing something, for the next election. Nothing more, nothing less.