Kamloops This Week
Construction of new passing lanes and commercial truck pullout will soon begin on Highway 5 north of Kamloops.
Just over two kilometres of Highway 5 will be widened to include a passing lane, south of McLure. In addition, a Commercial Vehicle Safety Enforcement (CVSE) pullout will be constructed, providing a safe place for commercial drivers to rest and for CVSE to conduct mobile inspections.
As well, the pullout will include toilet facilities.
Work is scheduled to begin in June, with completion anticipated in October of 2016.
Engineering work has begun at the second location for new passing lanes near Darfield between Barriere and Little Fort. A new, three-kilometre southbound passing lane will be added and the existing northbound passing lane will be extended by 2.7 kilometres.
“This is a busy corridor with more than a thousand trucks moving goods through this region every day,” said Transportation Minister and Kamloops-South Thompson MLA Todd Stone.
Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Terry Lake, in whose riding the improvements will be made, noted the volume of traffic on the stretch of highway has increased by about eight per cent since 2010.
“In the past few years, we’ve resurfaced sections of the highway, added new guardrails and constructed new passing lanes at Chappel Creek and Camp Creek,” Lake said.