WILLIAMS LAKE – The Province of British Columbia has announced an additional $200 million of funding to increase capacity and improve efficiency of the Cariboo Connector.
The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure will be moving ahead with the first project of this phase; a four-laning project south of Williams Lake, near Knife Creek Road. The ministry will commit a further $1 million to conduct engineering and development work on the first four projects of Phase 3. The engineering and design work will begin immediately.
Through the Cariboo Connector Program, $240 million was invested for 18 projects in Phase 1, all of which have been completed. Phase 2 of the program began in April 2012 with a provincial commitment of $200 million for nine projects.
Six are now complete, two are in construction and the last project was recently tendered. The final project of Phase 2 – four-laning of Highway 97 from Carson Road to Toop Road – will be completed by fall of 2018. With the completion of Phase 2, almost 50% of the 440-kilometre corridor will be either three or four lanes.
The Cariboo Connector Program is a key component of the BC on the Move, the province’s 10-year plan to improve BC’s transportation network. Over the next three years the ministry and its partners are investing over $4.6 billion in priority transportation investments throughout the province.
This $200-million commitment to upgrade Highway 97 between Cache Creek and Prince George is one of the ways BC government is taking action to strengthen and grow rural communities.
