Major road construction projects ready to start

Apr 27, 2016 | 5:34 PM

KAMLOOPS — The snow has melted and the weather is warm. With spring in full swing, so begins a blast of construction around the Kamloops. 

Work will start soon on several major road construction improvement projects, many of them high traffic routes. 

Commuters were frustrated last year with construction tying up Columbia Street and Overlanders Bridge, but the city says this year will be different.
 

WATCH: Full report by Tanya Cronin

It won’t be quite as intense as last summer, but the City of Kamloops has a full slate of road construction projects on tap for this year. The first, resurfacing of Notre Dame Drive between Columbia Street and Hillside Drive, just one of several major routes being upgraded.

“Pacific Way we’re going to be doing some water main reconstruction in the middle and a full resurfacing from top to bottom from Hugh Allan to Aberdeen Drive, another big one coming up is Richmond Avenue, full reconstruction on that one,” says Darren Crundwell, Capital Projects Manager for the City of Kamloops.

On Pacific Way, pot holes that have plagued the 1.5 kilometre stretch will disappear, and the route will be completely smoothed over. But a chunk of the work, causing most delays, will be 400 metres in between, where crews will labour to replace a severely outdated water main.

“We know there’s significant impact to these projects, but we just ask for a bit of patience and there’s a bit of a short term pain for long term gain, we have to make the improvements to the roads so they are smoother and function better.”

Tranquille Road between 8th and 13th streets will also be redone this year, and work will begin later in the season to connect two roads on Grasslands Boulevard. Darren Crundwell says the city is doing its best to stagger the projects.

“Notre Dame will be within the next couple of weeks, Pacific Way within a month you’ll see work crews out there, Richmond about the same timeline probably a little bit sooner, we will likely have everything up and running probably late May, beginning of June.”

The  upcoming improvements won’t cause nearly as many headaches as construction on Columbia Street and the Overlanders Bridge last year, but drivers are still being cautioned to find alternate routes when need be, and bring a lot of patience.

“As soon as we know the schedule, know dates, we’ll be communicating that out, similar to what we did last year, we’re trying to be very proactive with our communication on these capital projects,” says Crundwell.

MAP: Major road construction projects