Two Projects to Improve Highway 97
Wednesday, August 24, 2016 @ 9:47 AM
Prince George, B.C. – Two projects on Highway 97 in Prince George will reduce congestion, and improve safety.
Work is underway on a $400,000 project to improve access to and from Massey Drive at Highway 97. The acceleration lane onto the highway is being lengthened to improve merging, and the deceleration lane to the off-ramp is
also being extended. Work is expected to be completed by the end of August.
Once that project is complete, work will start on a project to improve safety at the Highway 97/5th Avenue intersection. A deceleration lane, approximately 50 metres in length, will be added to Highway 97 to improve right turns onto
5th Avenue and reduce congestion at the intersection. The project is valued at $300,000.
Comments
Now if people only knew how to merge..
And YEILD!!!
the issue with 5th and 97 is not the right lane turn onto fifth. It is the people running the left turn signal off 97 onto fifth then being stopped by a light at Abhu.
SO AGREE!! But the other problem is the big rigs running the lights on 97.
So the red light cameras are not effective then? Try doubling the fine.
All Westcana ICBC & Highways have to do is synchronise the lights from 5th ave to the junction at 16 & 97. They do that on hwy 1 through Regina. Do the speed limit and you got a green light from end to end.
Yet another issue is the disparity between the spelling and pronunciation of Ahbau. I had lived in PG for several years before I discovered that the “aboo” street I heard people mention was the same as the one I knew as Ahbau
(pronounced as in German).
I have read that Ahbau Lake where the name of the street comes from was named after a Chinese miner that once was in the area. I have read.
Northbound traffic turning right onto 5th is an issue. All it takes is 2 cars or one semi or logging truck to get stopped in the right lane on a red and nobody is turning right down 5th until the next light change. It’s the same situation at 15th and 22nd. There’s long deceleration/exit lanes for southbound traffic wanting to turn right onto 5th, 15th or 22nd but no deceleration/exit lanes for northbound bypass traffic wanting to turn right at the same intersections.
You are so right on 5th Avenue turning right on 97 and 5th. Long overdue . Firstly the lights on Ahbua are regulated by the city. They should never have an exit to 5 th from Save on Foods. The money spent is all part of the Four lane highway from PG to Cache Creek. Remember , what a joke that was over. 20 years. I guess they want to get the people of Williams Lake and south who are represented by NDP as they are all getting four lanes. Time those big trucks give our area a chance for four lanes so when we go south we have the same privileges as the people of the south have. They treat us second class on roads. Just like the visit of the Royals, Premier Christy Clark has a temporary home in Kelowna and to get votes has the royals tour her city. Give me a break
What is this …. not allowed to like a post?
Instead I’m getting the following:
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This is not a good system …. full of flaws and bugs.
It would be much better to go to a simple up/down arrow button with each up or down counting as 1 vote, with the ability to instantly see one’s vote counted.
It looks like 250 was on a pay system. If the problem is that 250 wanted to remove it, LikeBtn has not removed the entire thing. Instead, we now have a free ad for them running on every post.
Probably kike Facebook, difficult to unplug from it without them catching you making the wrong click.
250’s IT people should be able to remove it.
“It would be much better to go to a simple up/down arrow button with each up or down counting as 1 vote, with the ability to instantly see one’s vote counted.”
You must be new. That has been in place for a year or more and it appears people did not like it.
JGalt and Ataloss must have petitioned the site to have the dislike button removed, maybe tired of all the thumbs down? LOL
It’s entirely normal in this day and age for some to feel exalted by their posts. This is an opinion post. It doesn’t matter if your opinion is liked or disliked, it’s your opinion, you own it.
I get that some folk really need the assurance that their opinion matters, but does it? No. For some they’re an emotional rollercoaster.
It’s interesting to read comments posted to see how others feel about certain things but that’s about it.
@ R5t5e4m6c; This site has discontinued the like/dislike system. As for all these highway improvements, something the provincial government is really spending a lot of money on this year, since there are no prospects for jobs or a booming economy up here. Who knows, they might just spend their way into a re-election.
So you are suggesting they make all these plans in the last year of the election, then, when they get elected, they hold all the projects until the next election year when they create massive numbers of little project here and there all over the province, plus trot out new plans for the next 4 years.
Only conspiracy believers would buy into that.
To remove that kind of thinking, one would have to stop all projects in the 4th year of the term, thus removing 25% of the opportunity to do highway improvements.
That is a pretty lousy way to run a government.
“Yet, a larger change in expenditure composition in election than in non-election years is predominantly a phenomenon in established democracies. In addition, several recent studies dis-aggregate total budget categories into current and capital spending (e.g. Vergne, 2009) and find for high-income OECD countries that elections shift public spending towards more visible current expenditures (Katsimi and Sarantides, 2012).”
Interesting that it has been found; “elections shift public spending towards more visible current expenditures” Can’t get more visible than spending election year money on highly visible traffic congestion highway improvement projects in key BC cities now can it?
On another note, the like/dislike system has its pros and cons, when gopg2015 (Gus) would begin to post too many comments we simply down voted them, and he would get the picture, now it might be up to the moderator to step in when his verbal diarrhea becomes a bit overwhelming.
That’s because we have a pretty lousy govt.
Gus opened his own site, made a few posts but hasn’t added anything since Nov. 2014.
See ht tp://gus.jokat.ca/
I do not care whether it is an election year or not as long as some glaring traffic deficiencies are finally being taken care of! When they fix it some people complain and when they do not fix it some people complain too!
So where in my two (2) comments am I “complaining” about the highway upgrades? I simply pointed out the “reason” why these highway upgrades tend to happen in an election year, that is not complaining… you should know the difference!
So after August, when these two “small” highway improvement projects are completed, I just want the people using these new right turn lanes to ask one simple question: these right hand turn lanes were needed for decades, why were the projects approved and completed this year (an election year)?
Don’t mind me PrinceGeorge, I am just trying to wake the sheeple!
JGalt, I get your point about waking up the sheeple! After you have awakened them, then what? What are they going to do? Many people are too busy or to complacent to ever become concerned about the timing of a highway improvement. Once it is completed they just start using it! We know how B.C. elections usually turn out. The NDP is famous for putting highways somewhat low (to put it mildly) on the priority list. The ones we have now put it several notches higher, but even that is not nearly high enough for us in the North. So that is the dilemma we are in! Therefore I appreciate the little they do – if it makes driving safer here.
I doubt that waking up the complacent will lead to many letters to Victoria.
So, lets see. The Massey on\ off ramp has seemed to work well for over 30 years. All of a sudden(election in the wind) a major upgrade is needed. Wow. Four hundred thousand dollars of our tax money. WTF.
And of course traffic patterns and volumes haven’t changed one iota in 30 years. By your logic twinning the bridges over the Fraser and Nechako was also a big waste.
Oh waaa, why do people have to remind the rest of us about the impending election? Must be NDP lovers.. You’d think the upgrades on Massey would be because of Lowe’s not because the highway needed to be done.
Pine Centre is going to be a lot busier with a hardware store that sells wood products and a full garden centre on the lot. Sears garden doesn’t compare to what is built for Lowe’s. It’ll also be a big change from previous tenants since that spot in Pine Centre has always been department stores with plenty of extra parking.. Have fun at Christmas! Lol.
I think you hit the nail on the head! Looking forward to shopping at Lowes – it will save me time and money.
pookerjams; I find your comment about the reason upgrades are being done from Highway 97 off-road to Massey being due to Lowes moving into Pine Centre very interesting!
So nearly a quarter of a million of our tax payer dollars is being used to increase access to an american corporation’s business? Perhaps our loyal government opposition should be undertaking an Access to Information Act request for information exchanged between the Ministry of Transportation and Lowes Businesses Inc.
If what pookerjams says is in fact true, then we have yet another example of us taxpayers subsidizing corporate business, good deal for Lowes… perhaps as a “condition” of setting up shop in PG at the Pine Center? Come on NDP find out for us before that information gets “triple deleted”!
The wife and I had this discussion sometime ago and we came to the conclusion it would be for LOWES because of the traffic increase. Roadwork is expensive, just the way it is…build a bridge and get over it.
I suppose that if the work is being done to accommodate a higher volume of business to Pine Centre (and perhaps larger vehicles with larger loads of building products from Lowes) it is possible that the work might reduce accidents and save lives!
If it saves even one life, many here would suggest that it is money well spent!
I wonder what the sheeple think about that? JGalt, any thoughts?
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