Cariboo Connector Gets New Work
Prince George – The province announced today that the project, to four lane highway 97 between Stone Creek, and Williams Rd is going to tender.
The project, 29 kilometers south of Prince George, will see three kilometers of highway 97 from the Red Rock Weigh station to the Stone Creek bridge widened from two to four lanes.
The project is expected to get underway this summer and will be completed by 2017.
The work also will include replacing the Red Rock , CN overhead to accommodate the new highway. The new overhead will be 5.5 meters, allowing for greater clearance for large trucks.
Highway Minister Todd Stone, says there are nine phase two projects which will add 30 kilometers of new four lane sections to highway number 97 south.
When completed Stone says almost 50% of the 440 kilometer highway to Cache Creek will be either three or four lanes.
Comments
It might seem odd to complain about getting a highway improvement, but the plan is to twin that highway over something like 50 years. So, for the rest of my lifetime, there will never be a time I can drive to Vancouver without going through road building at several points along the way. Be nice if they could just bite the bullet and get it done in a shorter time frame, or scale down the grand plan and put in enough passing lanes to speed up the flow of traffic.
ski50, but at what cost, it will be 3-4 billion dollars to do it all at once. Thus it makes sense to do it over 25 years at a 200 million a year. Even though the over all cost is more, your not borrowing money to do it, it gets built thru the government cashflow.
Even if they did do it in one shot, your still going to have to wait in construction, because the pavement needs to be capped every ten or fifteen years anyway.
Meaning doing section at a time makes sense, so 400 km of highway does not come due all at once.
@He Spoke, all Capital expenses are borrowed money. Why do you think our debt keeps growing? When the BC Libs say balanced budget they mean revenue=expenses, except all capital projects.
This isn’t new money, or a new plan, just a new advertising campaign for you and I to pay for.
Seems to me the traffic flows are higher now on 16 west Thats where the focus should turn to.
There’s another story out now that says they’re going to do the Cariboo Connector in 10 years now – I assume that’s here to Cache Creek. So, they must have heard me thinking. Fate makes a good point. The way the government budgets now is like this.
Tax revenue in 10 billion, operating expenditures (including interest and principal payments on prior borrowings) 9.8 billion – surplus 200 million. Then, they borrow 2.5 billion, and build roads, but they don’t count that in the 9.8 billion. Instead, say the payments are 200 million on the new debt, that 200 million will be included in next year’s operating expenditures. So that’s how the overall debt can go up, and have a surplus in the same breath.
It sounds wonky, but really, when we purchase a house, the 300,000 for the house, we don’t consider a current expenditure, but we do consider the future mortgage payments to be so.
It really doesn’t matter if they take 10 years or more to finish the twinning, between here and Cache Creek because guess what??? There is very little traffic on this section of the Highway.
The changing of the overpass at Red Rock is long overdue.
Where we really need to spend money is on Highway 16 West. This is where the heavy traffic is, and where it will be for the next 10/15 years.
The fact that they do not expect the Prince George to Cache Creek portion of the highway to be completed for sometime is an indication that the Government is aware that there is not much traffic on this Highway.
Couple of quick comments on this story and the other comments:
– completing the 4-laning between the scales and Stone Creek is a short but very important link. With that there will be about 12 consecutive km of 4-lane; good to sort out the fast from the slow. This will also be an expensive piece due to the topography and water issues.
When they link the 4-lane sections at Red Rock north to the old Art Knapp’s, there will be close to 30 km in one stretch.
– from my occasional trips on Hwy 16 west, it seems to have a lot less traffic than 97 south, especially as you get further away from PG. Anyone have actual numbers?
CL
canislupus,. I don’t have the numbers, but drive quite a bit on both 97 and 16. 16 West to Vanderhoof, Ft St James, Burns Lake is the busiest by far. A lot of people West of Prince George come here to shop. We used to get a lot of people from Quesnel and Williams Lake, however with Cdn Tire, Super Store, Walmart, Staples, Lordco, New Save On, etc locating in Quesnel, there is a lot less need for these people to come to Prince George.
Because the population in the Interior has not increased in the past ten years, and with a huge decline in industry, there is a lot less truck traffic coming to Prince George from the South. We do however have a lot of truck traffic from the West. ie; Woodchips, logs, loaded and empty tankers, grocery trucks, etc;
16 East has very little traffic.
Best figures I can find are for August 3/11
Highway 97, 9KM South of the Old Cariboo Highway (Art Knapps)
24 hour volume, 5109 vehicles. Peak hour 10am. 392 vehicles.
Highway 16, West. Chilako 20 KM West of Prince George.
24 hour volume, 5967 vehicles. Peak hour 4pm. 468 vehicles.
If you take Highway 16 West, East of Blackwater Road (Yellowhead Golf Course)
24 hour volume, 11,820 vehicles. Peak 5pm. 984 vehicles.
So I would reiterate that Highway 16 West is a much busier Highway than 97 South.
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