$469 Million for Trans Canada Upgrades

The Federal and Provincial Governments have announced they will spend $469.4 million dollars to expand and upgrade two more sections of the Trans Canada Highway in BC.

$19.4 million will go towards building a four lane section from Donald to Forde Station west of Golden.

BC Transport Minister Todd Stone said the bulk, or $450-million will realign and four-lane the rest of Kicking Horse Canyon east of Golden.

“It will be the most expensive highway construction project not only in BC history but we think in Canadian history at $110-million dollars per kilometres.”

Stone says the Kicking Horse project will significantly improve safety on the Trans Canada

“This location has a collision and fatality rate about three times the provincial average, so that is fundamentally why it is important to get on with this project and make this investment.”

Stone says together the projects will employ hundreds of people.

“These projects are also going to create about 14-hundred direct jobs. There will be jobs created up and down the entire corridor. There will be a huge impact particularly on Golden and Revelstoke I’m sure.”

The Trans Canada sees between $24 and $32-billion dollars of commercial goods transported through these sections every year.