Two Million To Be Added To Road Maintenance on Highwway 16 And 97
Prince George- British Columbia Transportation Minister ,Todd Stone , says moving the designation of highways 16 and 97 to class A will cost the province and additional 2 million dollars a year in maintenance . He made the annoucment in Prince George today.
Stone says the move is the result of three things;
1 Safety concerns
2 Increased volumes of traffic
3 The expected growth of traffic due to the increased resource traffic.
The province according to the Minister has started negotiations with its contractors to cover costs.
The upgrades are expected to be in place before mid February.
Currently Highway 16 is maintained at a rural highway Class B level, except for main arterials through cities and the stretch of road between the B.C./Alberta border and Tête Jaune Cache, which are already maintained at a Class A level. The change will make the entire Highway 16 corridor Class A, from Prince Rupert to the B.C./Alberta border.
Currently Highway 97 North has a classification level of B for the portion between Prince George and Chetwynd. After the change, the entire northern section of Highway 97 from Cache Creek to the end of provincial jurisdiction for the highway north of Fort St. John, will be Class A.
Comments
Must be about time to rebuild 16 and Domano again! Need a bridge there along with 16 & 97 !
I think there will be a connector road from Sintich to Hwy 16 west. resulting on a bridge over the Fraser. This will elliviate a lot of traffic at the junction of 16/97. Plus rerouting of the dangerous goods. Than the final phase is to connect this too the Hart highway, jumping over the Nechako, somewhere in the toollies called Miworth.
Finishing the extension of Ospika west would alleviate a lot of the domano/hwy 16 congesting. Not sure where this sits on the City’s priority list.
If PG to the Alberta border is already maintained as a class A highway I don’t expect much improvement with this new classification on the rest of it or on 97.
Hopefully a class A designation includes sanding and salting in a timely fashion, meaning before a bunch of accidents and vehicles in the ditches.
Does class A include smooth crack sealing and proper pothole patching?
Posted by: Huh on January 21 2014 12:50 PM
If PG to the Alberta border is already maintained as a class A highway I don’t expect much improvement with this new classification on the rest of it or on 97.
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PG to T̻te Jaune Cache which is the junction to Valemont is Class B, or was Рnow it will be Class A
I remember trying to drive to the Bowron for camp work in the 80s/90s and the whiteout conditions some nights would force you to turn back shortly after the Giscome turnoff more than once a year. Once the sun goes down that highway could easily snuff a few lives, and has. Class A will only help that out.
I will agree with you that the level of highway service up to Quesnel district is concerning if that was already Class A, maybe it was being serviced as a Class B all these years as the rest of the highways from PG were
You’re right, I missed that part about the class A starting at Tete Jeune. Hopefully the conditions TO Tete Jeune improve.
What about the highway between Vanderhoof and Fort St James?
Am I the only one that doesn’t picture an extra $2M going very far considering that is roughly 1,800KM of highway to maintain?
Does not sound like alot of money.If more money is given to contractors,who is going to be out there to see if the extra work is being done or will it just be more money in the contactors pocket
I agree with NMG. $2 Million per year is peanuts for that amount of Highway.
It sounds good, and gives them good press, but what exactly will it accomplish??
We need some real money spent in this part of the Country. Certainly PG West to Kitimat, Terrace, Prince Rupert.
We have elected representatives in both the Federal and Provincial Governments, but we get diddly squat when it comes to money. Same thing happened when the NDP were in power. Lois Boone and Paul Ramsay did nothing for this area, other than Ramsay had the John Hart bridge twinned.
Boone I think was Minister of Highways, and we got nothing in this area. All the money was spent on the Island Highway.
Now the Liberals are playing games and have spent next to nothing West of Prince George.
Our streets are Class A. And I don’t mean that in a positive sense. Pick any “A” word for our streets.
There are renewed calls for 4-laning both 97 and 16. They trumpeted the 2 million as an absolute necessity considering the increased traffic hauling equipment and resources with the coming boom! So they are aware of it! 2 million is less than a band aid! Both highways must be brought into the 21st century as far as safety goes, together with the ability to handle the greater volume of traffic.
“…and we got nothing in this area…”
I have been saying that very same thing for many years on this site but every time I mentioned this I was reminded that we do not need new bridges and highways. Now this.
Posted by: NMG on January 21 2014 7:01 PM
Am I the only one that doesn’t picture an extra $2M going very far considering that is roughly 1,800KM of highway to maintain?
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In context that is an extra $1,111.11 per km over 1,800km – on top of what they already get for maintenance. Or $1.11 extra per meter
The city of PG averages about 5.5 million in snow removal per year to plow 670km of roads within PG, or 8,208.96 per km. If we got that 1,111.11 per km for our city roads it would be a 13.5% increase.
I think the next tow major capital projects in PG should be the Ospika overpass connector to highway 16, funded 100% by the federal government as it involves providing a crossing to a federal highway. Once that is complete work should start right away on a boundary road Fraser crossing and connector to highway 16 near Blackwater Rd, a federal and provincial project. IMO
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