Another major road project on Tranquille Road in Kamloops is currently underway.

The so-called Tranquille Gateway Improvements Project will include beautification and infrastructure upgrades, as well as a new multi-use pathway between the SPCA office and Crestline Street to connect to the new Fulton Field Park.

Kachel tells RadioNL paving work on Tranquille Road from Ord Road to the SPCA office was completed ahead of the Memorial Cup.

“That was just surface milling and grinding and paving. This is the main project we’re starting now that we held off on,” he said. “We would have started by now if it wasn’t for Memorial Cup but now that that is out of the way, we’re going to move forward with this.”

“It will be the start of quite a nice corridor feeding into the airport.”

Kachel says while there will be traffic access maintained in each direction, there will be delays, with people heading to or from Kamloops Airport.

“In terms of traffic volumes its not super high but when you think about the sort of traffic that has to come through here, it is quite critical. The other part of it is the dangerous goods route that is on here as well so certain traffic needs to go through this way so we need to accommodate that as well,” Kachel said.

“That has been taken into consideration but yeah, folks can probably expect their commute to be slowed down if they’re going this way, but there are other options to move over. If you’re not going to the airport or a business in that area, you can go over to Ord Road and get around.”

Construction of the roughly $4.2 million project is expected to wrap up by the end of this year.

“Everything should be paved before Halloween. That is our goal,” Kachel said. “This component of the work will be done this year but then there is that Tranquille Phase 3 which is the continuation of this project, which is going to come, I believe, in 2025.”

Phase 1, west of Crestline Street towards the Airport, was completed in 2017, while Phase 2 from Southill Street to 12th Street was completed in 2021. Phase 3 will see work take place between Crestline and Southill streets.

“So we’ll have a year gap and then another big project on Tranquille,” Kachel said.