We found it saved a bit of time but more so the scenery and the lack of traffic made it a worth while alternative - being able to drive at one's own pace instead of stuck in a long line of traffic is much less stressful.

On a side note, have you been to the ice caves by Bridge Lake or to the abandoned gold mine east of Little Fort?

I like it!
In that order too.
Now we just need the $$

And a government willing to do it!

You think things were slow under the Liberals? I would not hold my breath for any major new highway projects now that the NDP / Greens are in power (if anything it is more likely to see some already planned projects cancelled or reduced in scale).

Key players within this new government are from Vision Vancouver, and we all know how strict their dogma is regarding highways.

Looks like the #99 improvements / GMB project is already dead.

I wish an alternative to the Liberals in BC did not equate neglect for our highway system...

Make all of hwy 1 and 17 as well as hwy 97 from penticton to prince George 4 lane grade separate highways and then BC would be pretty good with regards to road improvements.

Twining the lengths of hwy 5, 19 and maybe 3 would maybe be next in line

Oh no!
That doesn't sound promising at all. :shrug::hell:

I haven't been to the mines but have been over to the ice caves, pretty cool stuff. They upgraded the parking lot and paths last year to make it a litte more accessible

The mine workings are well worth a visit, core samples laying all about, shafts that are still open, some old buildings and other stuff.

On another note, it took my wife 9.5 hours to go from Calgary to Kelowna yesterday - pretty much all of the delays were due to construction except for a 30 minute delay west of Revelstoke where someone decided to abandon their car askew across both the WB driving and emergency lanes in a no passing zone.

Very interesting, will definitely check that out the next time we head out there. Was hoping to go August long but it doesn't look like that's going to happen due to the fire situation

We enjoyed taking the #1 as a changecof scenery but not in a huge rush to do it again, at least during the summer driving season. Can't remember exactly how long it took to go from Calgary to Kamloops but with the heavy traffic and delays it was a long trip.

Nice list, but the scope of your projects are way too big. You need to break them up into smaller chunks for them to be realistic.

For example, a revised list could have these:
1. Twin the Trans Canada between Quartz Creek and Golden
2. Twin the Trans Canada between Sicamous and Three Valley Gap
3. Twin the Trans Canada between Mt Revelstoke National Park and Glacier National Park
3. Grade separate Highway 17 from Highway 99 to the Trans Canada (5 interchanges)
4. Twin Highway 5 from Kamloops to McLure

Basically, find areas that are easier to do (ie. not under Parks Canada jurisdiction), then do them in ~$100M chunks. Any bigger and there's just no chance it happens, or it gets done so piecemeal that it's not very meaningful. I think the current trend of a couple kilometers here and there sucks, and the grand goal of doing 100 kilometers in one go is also impossible.

I went to visit a buddy in Penticton recently. I chose the highway 5 okanagan connector combo. Then 97 south through Peachland and Summerland. Haven't driven that road in like 8-9 years so I was curious what it looked like. I was shocked. It's still the same original road. As soon as you get off 97C and merge with 97 south it's only 1 lane and 2 lanes north through that stretch with no divider. Once you get to Peachland it's only 2 lanes. And it pretty much stays that way once you get halfway to Summerland and then there's new stretches of 4 lane 100km/hr divided highway . Similar in design to the Sea to Sky between Horseshoe Bay and Squamish. It's still the original 4 lanes through Summerland but at least it's continuous 4 lanes divided all the way to Penticton.

I know it's BC and we have low exceptations regarding roads here but come on. The only major north south route through the Okanagan and it's still the original 2 lane road? Most of the intersections don't even have right hand turn lanes. I couldn't imagine driving that stretch on a busy summer weekend. What a frustrating slog that can be. I know it's all about money and they can easily expand it. Parts of 97 should be upgraded to full freeway but yet it's still 2 lanes.

Several options have been presented about Peachland. Some include 4 lanning the 2 lane stretch along the waterfront, but the far superior idea is a new 4 lane divided bypass that goes around Peachland to the west of it.

If you people hope to see continued investments and improvements in our highway system I suggest you send the new minister an e-mail:


Claire Trevena's website and wiki page

As always, keep it constructed and civil.

I can't see building a brand new bypass would be cheaper than upgrading a relatively short original 2 lane stretch into the 4 lane designs that we see on other parts of the 97. And making drivers take an extra detour for a bypass that will probably not be full freeway seems pointless when it'll probably add time then the straight route that is there now.

I think you are right about the $100 million chunks having been the way to progress. I do think however that the transcanada is getting close to the point that completion of twinning in BC could be conceived as a single major infrastructure project by a federal government. After all, a lot of the remaining twinning is in the parks, and a Federal responsibility anyway. I can see that the current approach will get twinning done to Revelstoke, the problem for the provincial government is that there just are not many voters east of Revelstoke to justify the spend without significant Federal cash.

Just rode across Canada, the construction through Yoho and Glacier is pretty brutal right now. Plus because of all that backed up truck traffic, I wasn't able to take the good corners east of Golden with any sort of speed.

Just did a quick trip up to PG and then decided to head over to Vanderhoof since I had never been west of the city. Lots of construction just on western edge of city. A new 3 1/2 km section is being widened to 4 lanes with improved intersections. Also closer to Vanderhoof at Mapes Road, this intersection is being improved as well as 25+km of fresh new pavement. I was quite surprised by the volume of traffic on this section of highway

Drove the number one though Yoho National Park, lots of twinning already happening there (finally!).

Here are a couple pics of the work:

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4344/...11b553bf_b.jpgRocky Mountain Driving by Ian, on Flickr

An animal overpass being constructed

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4436/...bb038efd_b.jpgHighway One Widening by Ian, on Flickr

Pics are my own, cheers!

Thanks for the update Metro - complete with photos no less. :tup:
Is this the section continued from the Alberta border ?

Yeah, it is continuing from the border, about 6 to 8 km in it looked. There is another major stretch on construction happening in Glacier National Park, which really surprised me because I heard nothing about that.

^^^

Nice! I drove through a month ago but didn't have time to take any pics. I was unaware of the construction in Glacier National as well, so it's nice to know that they are adding a passing lane.

I just drove through yesterday, they've made a bit of progress since I rode through a month and a half ago.

Anyone know what's happening up by Rogers Pass too in the summit area? Looks like widening work there as well but not too sure.