Specifics on timelines and costs for four-laning the Trans-Canada Highway were what an NDP MLA was looking for during the recent provincial government budget estimates.
Claire Trevena, Opposition critic for the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, asked Minister Todd Stone questions that included the Shuswap.
“So $10-million per kilometre – can the minister give a dollar figure for the four-laning? And can he give a timeline for when this four-laning will happen? We’ve had the billboards up since 2009…”
She said safety is a prime consideration, noting that “there were six accidents on the highway between Revelstoke and Salmon Arm alone, six fatalities, just around the Christmas period…” She added that someone pointed out to her if there had been six measles cases, the health authorities and others would have taken immediate action.
“Everybody would have acted, but six fatalities on that road are taken as par for the course. Without fatalities, the road was closed 67 times last year.”
Stone said the estimate to complete the four-laning from where it stops, in the Pritchard area, to the Alberta border is about $6 billion, but he didn’t provide a time line.
From east to west, he said the ministry is now doing: design work on the Kicking Horse Canyon and the North Fork Bridge; design work on four-laning Donald East, a section between Golden and Revelstoke; design work on Illecillewaet, a 2.4-kilometre section that will allow cars and trucks to park more safely when the highway is closed; design work on Salmon Arm West, “a very significant project that involves a tremendous amount of four-laning as well as the replacement of the Salmon River Bridge”; work at Hoffman’s Bluff; and design work on the two sections that would go from Hoffman’s Bluff up to Jade Mountain, just east of Chase.
“Part of the consideration moving forward is that the federal government, in terms of Build Canada funding and their willingness to partner on projects, don’t tend to like the province to get too far out in front of them in terms of announcing projects before funding has been approved,” Stone said.
Trevena noted that $6 billion is $2 billion less than the cost of the controversial Site C Dam in the Peace River country.
Regarding timelines for highway four-laning, Stone referred to the “near term.”
“These projects represent over 60 kilometres of four-laning that is going to take place in the near term on the Trans-Canada Highway. It would be a dramatic improvement in four-laning. In fact, when these projects are done, we will be, for the most part, four-laned right up to Salmon Arm. There may be one section between Sorrento and Salmon Arm that has yet to be done, but we should be four-laned almost all the way up to Salmon Arm, most of the way into Sicamous…”
Trevena referred to something she said her colleague from Columbia River-Revelstoke mentions often regarding the four-laning of the Trans-Canada.
“It’s the amount of money that’s actually allocated to it in the budget,” Trevena remarked. “We’ve got $45 million this year, $46 million next year and $60 million the year after. And just to replace the (Salmon River) bridge, we’re talking approximately $40 million. So, it’s a drop in the ocean.”
Trevena also asked about line painting on the highway and if there is the capacity to do it twice a year. She noted on her recent trip through the Interior she could neither see the fog lines on the side of the road nor the lines in the centre.
Stone said, particularly in the Interior regions, two paint applications are done, one in the spring and one in the fall. He said contractors different from those who do maintenance take care of it.
Stone noted that a few years ago the federal government effectively banned the use of oil-based paints, and water-based paints don’t last as long. He said the province has been researching what other provinces and jurisdictions around the world do.
“Now I can say that since that change was made with the federal regulation, we are applying more paint that we ever have before.”