The list of key priorities released by the Ministry of Transportation this week includes work on several Interior highways.

(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)

KAMLOOPS - Upgrades to Highway 1, Highway 5, cycling infrastructure and rest areas are among the many items listed in the recently released 10-year provincial plan.

The Ministry of Transportation released the 10-year transportation plan, B.C. on the Move, this week. The plan outlines 12 key priorities, from improving highway safety and investing in transit and cycling to putting a trucking strategy in place and improving accessibility.

In the Kamloops region several larger items are on the agenda, including the Highway 1 project, which is expanding the entire stretch of highway between Kamloops to the Alberta border to four lanes. Adding passing lanes to the Yellowhead Highway between Kamloops and Tête Jaune Cache also cracks the top priority list.

Work on the Trans-Canada Highway has been underway for several years and crews are currently working on a stretch of highway between Pritchard and Hoffman’s Bluff. They will continue work on another 3.1-kilometre section immediately afterwards.

Further east construction on several other sections is underway with planning and design already started on a few more sections as well. The province had already committed $650 million to the entire project and is looking at securing additional federal funding to help move the project along more quickly.

There are more than 170 rest areas in the province and plans are in place to complete improvements at up to 30 of them every year, at a cost of $9 million over the next three years. Those improvements will include new rest areas, widening pullouts, expanding parking areas, upgrading amenities such as washrooms, picnic tables, wi-fi and play areas, and accessibility improvements.

In addition variable speed limit systems will be implemented on several highways, including the Coquihalla Highway between Hope and Merritt and Highway 1 between Sicamous and Revelstoke. The variable speed limit system was one of several changes the province announced last July, along with higher speed limits, better enforcement against slow moving vehicles and improved signage to help reduce wildlife collisions.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Jennifer Stahn at jstahn@infonews.ca or call 250-819-3723. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

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