The B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure today announced highway maintenance projects in the Revelstoke area for Highway 1 and Highway 23.
The highway resurfacing and other small projects total $3.7 million and will be completed this year between June and September.
East of Revelstoke, about 17 kilometres of Highway 1 will be resurfaced. West of town, a one-kilometre stretch on the west side of the Columbia River Bridge will be resurfaced.
North of Revelstoke, 13 kilometres of Highway 23 between Revelstoke and the Mica Dam will be resurfaced.
The contract for the work has been awarded to Penticton-based Peters Bros. Construction Ltd.
Other small projects include:
- The construction of an avalanche catchment at the Panther slide pass, which is located between the Jack MacDonald and the Twin Snowsheds east of Revelstoke. The ministry said the catchment will help keep avalanche debris off the highway, meaning fewer delays.
- Easier to read passing lane signs will be installed between Perry River and Golden. The new signs will provide better information on the length of the passing zone.
The transportation ministry said it has spent $514 million on the highway network in the Columbia River–Revelstoke area in the past decade.
"This resurfacing work on Highway 1 near Revelstoke builds on the other safety improvements we're making to what is one of the province's most important highway corridors," said transportation minister Blair Lekstrom in a statement. "This work includes the Clanwilliam Bridge replacement, which will be finished this year, and more than 55 kilometres of new four-laning between Kamloops and the Alberta border that are either complete or underway."
Columbia River–Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald (NDP) welcomed the maintenance work. "Again this winter was very hard on it so it was clear there was some work that needed to be done," Macdonald said. "I think just like last year, there were sections that anybody who drove on it knew that it couldn't be left in the state that it is.
"Some of the potholes were there were really a problem," he said. "There were some huge holes. It was unbelievable."
Macdonald said the Ministry of Transportation "worked very effectively" within budget constraints, and noted larger upgrade projects like the new Clanwilliam bridge west of Revelstoke. "Long-term, of course, what we need is commitments to get the substantive work that needs to be done on the Trans-Canada," Macdonald said.