16 and 97 Priorities in Transportation Blueprint Says Minister
Prince George, B.C.- The new transportation plan for B.C. that will be the blueprint for transportation development throughout the province for the next ten years, will be released by the end of January 2015 and the Transportation Minister Todd Stone says Highway’s 16 and 97 will form an important focus of the report. “Certainly Highway 16 and highway 97 north of Prince George will be key priorities that we will hear loud and clear from northerners, but I can also assure you that they are priorities.”
City Council for the City of Prince George heard a call last evening for the City to work with the NCLGA in developing a presentation to the Ministry for this transportation report. Council is to reconvene to plan its next move now that the form of public discussion has been detailed.
Transportation investments for the next decade will be prioritized through two lenses says Stone, “The first is the traditional lens of safe movement of people and goods. The second lens, is kind of an add on , is to look through the lens of economic development and opportunity and jobs. From that perspective, looking at the LNG opportunities, the opportunities to expand and pen new mines and other industrial opportunities we know are coming to the north, a lot of the access will be via highway 16 and 97 rest assured those corridors will figure prominently in our ten year transportation plan moving forward.”
The Province will be gathering public input on transportation priorities from October 14th through to 4 p.m. on December 12th. A discussion guide, “B.C. On the Move” is available to read on line, and includes an overview of the transportation network in the province.
Comments
Relegate the unfinished Cariboo Connector to the heap of *never intended to be kept* promises.
@PrinceGeorge
You can not deny that the drive from PG to Cache Creek has been vastly improved under Cariboo Connector improvements, which if you read the initial government plan (still available on the internet) was a multi year program of four laning, not a commitment to have it four laned by a certain date. Phase two is underway, when I drove through late August there are projects underway. I’m sure the MOTH also has to balance expenditures in one area against needs in others.
Frankly I’ll file your comments under “will never be happy with anything”
Not much time left to get the highway twinned to Hope. Was very little road construction going on this summer from PG to Hope, but then they can’t even keep lines painted on the highway so what else would you expect.
The Cariboo Connector starts at Cache Creek, not Hope. Theviewuphere nailed it.
to When the Premier was interviewed on Channel 10 he made a solemn promise that once the Winter Olympic work was done he would throw all available equipment on the complete four laning of the entire Cariboo Connector. There was no debate about the multi year (50 year) frame work, it was a promise to get the whole thing done right away. That is why I am just a bit disappointed, although I do appreciate the fact that they have added some passing lanes and even a few kilometers of four lanes here and there! It doesn’t take much to make me happy, but I am even happier when they keep a promise now and then!
Theviewuphere obviously did not see it and therefore still subscribes and is happy with the slo-mo five decade thing.
JB-I was hoping they would have the highway twinned to Hope by 2020. When they said they were were going to throw all available equipment to complete the four laning the one thing they didn’t tell you is they only had one dump truck and two graders available.
oldman: “JB-I was hoping they would have the highway twinned to Hope by 2020.”
Keep hoping. It would cost multi-billions to 4-lane that section through the Fraser Canyon, not to mention the cost of expanding all the tunnels.
As for the section between PG and Cache Creek, as has been mentioned lots of 4 laning has been done. This work is costly and it takes a long time, not to mention several ‘challenging’ sections left to be done (like railway underpasses). I never expected it would be done right away. That’s just not realistic.
JB brings up a great point. As with other government projects, it seems to be they are often in reaction mode rather than proactive mode.
By this I mean “they” seem to attend to the low hanging fruit, the quick, the easy, and the cheapest option.
Perhaps “they” should be working on those choke points first or at least in conjunction with nearby projects.
The one that comes to mind is the rail underpass near Hixon. Perhaps “they” should be encouraging CN to start a program of expanding ALL rail over/under passes proactively so that the MOH can actually push those highway 97 projects faster and less expensively.
It’s pretty tough to 4-lane the entire highway from PG to hope when a major transport company with significant real holding that cross and adjoin the highway is not actively cooperating with the lane expansion plans.
Of course we must remember that we are considered to be “beyond hope”.
It was my understanding that the four lanes would be complete by 2020 and by the way what makes you think it’s so hard to build an overpass or an underpass -they do it all the time. The problem we have is the politicians in the north do not have a strong enough backbone to demand better things for the north…would not want to say to much or might be demoted. It seems it is unrealistic to even have four lanes to Red Rock!
Loki: “By this I mean “they” seem to attend to the low hanging fruit, the quick, the easy, and the cheapest option.
Perhaps “they” should be working on those choke points first or at least in conjunction with nearby projects.”
Lets face it, people would still complain if they did it that way. They would say that the work is progressing far too slowly, and people would be questioning the costs for the relatively small benefit.
At least by doing the easier sections first, the public perception is that more is getting done for the cost, and you’ll still never be able to please everybody in the end.
oldman: “It was my understanding that the four lanes would be complete by 2020”
Based on…? I never heard anything about four laning from Hope to Cache Creek.
Like I said, no matter what you do, people will complain about it.
That is why we have three government MLAs in our area, so we are not beyond hope! Anyone who thinks that four laning 97 North and 16 West first is not going to push four laning 97 South on a really cold backburner is not being very realistic.
BTW, Kelowna will get another bridge crossing the lake! Estimated cost at least a billion. That will be done before any of the other projects, so the purse already has a big tear in it.
Kelowna and the surrounding cities are in an area of high growth. PG, not so much.
OK- JB lets see how lon it takes them to complete the four laning to Cache Creek. One more thing- I don’t think I will puting anymore polish on my Liberal badge tonight.
Ah, an ad hominem attack! How original. You surely can do better than that, old man.
You also forgot to answer my question of where you got your information about 4 laning from Hope to Cache Creek.
JB-I think it was a politician who told me that about Hope to Cache Creek.
Ah, that clears it up.
“Kelowna and the surrounding cities are in an area of high growth. PG, not so much.”
Well, we have been around 99 years and for 99 years our tax money has been flowing to Victoria and Ottawa. Enough seniority, maybe. If we accept being sidelined of course we will never grow.
The Feds built a one billion dollar super highway in Afghanistan to keep the military supplies flowing from the north to the south. For our north to the south highway – not to worry!
A politician would say There is already a four lane highway between Cache Creek and Hope … Just doesn’t run through the canyon … And the way the economy is going, I predict that there will not a four lane highway through the canyon before 2120 … Maybe it would be far more productive to lobby for a four lane highway from PG to Kitimat, etc.
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