A section of Columbia Street in Kamloops. (Image Credit: Victor Kaisar/CFJC Today)

By Victor Kaisar

Road Paving

City postpones planned Columbia Street paving project due to ongoing Overlanders Bridge work

Jul 28, 2025 | 7:30 AM

KAMLOOPS — The City of Kamloops appears to have put the brakes on some planned paving work that was to be done on a stretch of Columbia Street this summer.

While a start date and other details were not made public, crews were expected to mill and pave the section of Columbia Street from Third Avenue to McGill Road between July and September.

Speaking to CFJC Today, Matt Kachel, the city’s Infrastructure Delivery Manager, said that work is on hold as the city does not want both the Overlanders Bridge and Columbia Street to be worked on at the same time.

“We are watching the situation and we don’t want the bridge constrained at the same time we’re going Columbia and taking lanes out to pave,” Kachel said. “Columbia is either going to be done after the bridge is done or it potentially might have to be pushed into next year.”

The city’s Project Delivery Manager Adam Gordon told CFJC Today that the work on Columbia would have been very similar to a paving project currently underway in Westsyde.

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“It strictly has to with the condition of the asphalt,” Gordon said. “The contractor has already been picked, and its BA Dawson Blacktop, the same group that is performing the work up on Westsyde.”

“We respect that [Columbia] is a major thoroughfare for commuters into the downtown area and so we’re looking to keep traffic flowing as best we can. The work is necessary in order for us to keep the asphalt looking fresh and feeling smooth.”

River Valley Construction Services began working on the Overlanders Bridge on July 14. While the current phase is expected to last four weeks in total, the city has not released a tentative date for the entire project to be done, only saying it’ll wrap up by the fall.

“We’re staggering our construction projects so that we don’t have too much construction going on,” Kachel said. “Columbia was a planned project for this year but given all the construction we might have to push it out.”

“There may also be an opportunity to work on Columbia at night because it is just a paving job, but we’ll have to work with our traffic group to see how we can make that work.”

by Victor Kaisar

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City postpones planned Columbia Street paving project due to ongoing Overlanders Bridge work

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