Crash along Highway 5, 2021 - Image Credit: Twitter / @redhead1317

By Michael Reeve

HIGHWAY SAFETY

Kamloops MLAs propose safety improvements for Highway 5

Jan 23, 2024 | 5:30 PM

KAMLOOPS — In advance of the upcoming provincial budget and the 2024 general election, B.C. United’s two Kamloops-area MLAs laid out a three-pronged plan to improve safety along the Highway 5 corridor from Kamloops to Valemount.

The plan, which speaks to enhanced trucking safety and year-round enforcement upgrades through increased BC Highway Patrol and CVSE officers, begins with needed infrastructure works along the dangerous corridor.

“We will add a minimum of three new passing lanes immediately. As I said, the last passing lanes were built in 2017 by our former government,” said Kamloops-South Thompson MLA Todd Stone. “Secondly, there is an inventory of safety improvements that are also required up and down the corridor.”

The two MLAs made the proposal as a campaign promise. They say they remain hopeful, but in no way confident, that some of the upgrades could end up in February 22 budget.

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“Our expectation is that the government won’t be able to try to play games by saying, ‘It’s in the budget, just not an identified project yet.’ Because the value of any significant project in that valley, by law, should be identified because it should be at a minimum over $50 million,” said Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Peter Milobar. “If they say anything other than that, they are simply playing games to try run the clock out.”

The average cost of a new passing lane is $15 million per kilometre. That means the project will likely cost in the range of $250-to-$300 million dollars as a starting point, a small figure according to Milobar in what will be a $250 billion budget.

“It’s a rounding error in the grand scheme of things to ask for this safety corridor. It’s a critical dangerous goods route, a designated dangerous goods route. It’s a numbered highway and it serves as not just an economic driver for the whole province and Northern Alberta, but for all those people who go back and forth for work and leisure. I don’t think this is to big of an ask. If anything it might be too small of an ask,” said Milobar.

While it can be hard to use safety improvements along Highway 5 to win votes in places like Vancouver, Stone noted the project needs to be tackled by the province, and this piece ties into a broader B.C. United infrastructure strategy.

“This is actually part of a larger commitment that B.C. United and Kevin Falcon is making, and that is to get back to more historical levels of investment in the interior, in the north, in the critical infrastructure that all British Columbians rely upon to move around the province,” added Stone.

This is the first significant local announcement from the provincial parties ahead of the election.

The opposition Conservatives, Greens and NDP have yet to name challengers for the seats in Kamloops.