Changes coming to the Coquihalla on its 30th anniversary
MERRITT, B.C. — The province is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the completion of the Coquihalla Highway with a host of improvements to the route.
The first will be an expansion of the Box Canyon commercial vehicle chain-up area, that comes with a 17.6 million dollar price tag.
“This is the site every single Winter of a pretty challenging section of the highway. When we see snow there is not enough room at the present location for trucks to pull over and put their chains on. Often those commercial trucks end up backing up into the highway creating a pretty siginifigant safety hazard for everyone else,” said Stone.
Stone adds the Box Canyon chain-up area is too small to accommodate the number of truck drivers who need to use it during a typical snowfall, and this expansion will help prevent parked trucks from backing up into the travel lanes.