Passing lanes on Highway 5 near Darfield, north of Kamloops. (Photo via BC Government)
Local leaders in the North Thompson have met with BC’s Transportation Minister regarding the absence of funds in the 2024 budget for upgrading the Yellowhead Highway, north of Kamloops.
Barriere Mayor Ward Stamer, expressing frustration, highlights $991 Million committed to continued improvements to the Trans Canada from Kamloops to the Alberta border.
It comes as there is nothing in the budget connected to improvements for additional passing lanes and other safety measures on Highway 5 north.
“The Minister (Rob Fleming) got ahead of it right at the beginning of the of the meeting; he kind of apologized in as much that ‘we know there was significant money earmarked for Highway 1, but no real money for the improvements we have been talking about for years now on Highway 5.'”
Stamer says Fleming hinted money could be allocated to Highway 5 in the 2025 budget after NL News asked if there was any reason given for the lack of funds given this year.
“We didn’t get any explanations other than they always talk about budget constraints and those kinds of things, but there are improvements still coming down the pipe.”
“They told us that that passing lane is scheduled for south of Barriere to Louis Creek is going ahead; they are 90 per cent complete on final engineering, and that should be complete by April.”
“He (Fleming) alluded that possibly, it could be in next year’s budget, but then again, we don’t know who is going to be in government at that time, so I guess we will have to wait and see.”
Meanwhile, Stamer says Fleming alluded to the “significant short-term improvements” the province has done for Highway 5.
“That they’ve been able to do a reduction of speed at Fish Trap Canyon, there could be a variable speed corridor there going forward, the lights and the chevrons in Elxou and we talked about the continuing engineering on Darfield to determine what they can do on the shifting of the ground.”
Stamer says enforcement along Highway 5 was also mentioned in the conversation, noting there is a lack of highway enforcement from the RCMP on that stretch of the highway.
“There’s only one full-time member out of the four-member crew left in Clearwater, so that’s obviously a concern.”
Some of the positives on the enforcement front that Stamer says the minister mentioned included the implementation of the speed limiters coming up in April, limiting transport trucks to 105 kilometres.
“He (Fleming) also let us know that they are still working on the mandatory dash cams, there’s a process that there may be mandatory commercial dash cams across Canada.”
Prior to the meeting with the Minister, Clearwater Mayor Merlin Blackwell told RadioNL he is frustrated there isn’t money set aside to address “much needed” safety concerns, they’ve been raising for quite some time.
“We continue to see Highway 1 improvements — significant dollars continue on Highway 1 – all we are asking for is a couple more passing lanes, similar or even smaller scale commitments,” said Blackwell.
“We are basically looking at more of the same, we are basically looking for a few signs on corners, maybe a CVSE checkpoint – probably in the wrong location if you talk to Todd Stone and Peter Milobar.”
Improvements on the Yellowhead Highway, north of Kamloops have been long called, in a bid to improve safety issues, as there’s been numerous crashes and fatalities along that stretch of highway.
