It will be another busy season of construction work on highways in or near the Upper Columbia Valley.
There will still be some touch-up work done at the bridge over Luxor Creek, near Spur Valley, and some resurfacing work done on Highway 93/95 south of Canal Flats, as well as a few side roads around Canal Flats and Fairmont Hot Springs, including the main Fairmont Resort road.
The Luxor Creek bridge project had caused traffic headed north from Radium Hot Springs to Golden to be reduced to single-lane alternating for much of last summer, but that work is pretty much all done, according to Transport Canada spokesperson Kate Mukasa.
“The Luxor Creek culvert replacement project is now complete and the bridge has been fully open to traffic for the past month. There is some minor clean up that is still required, but traffic impacts are not expected,” said Mukasa, adding that the new bridge takes the place of an 80-metre long culvert that was at the end of its serviceable life and needed replacement.
“The new bridge will increase safety for motorists in the area and will also ensure the safe clearance of higher water levels during spring run-off and high rain events,” she said.
The total cost of replacing the bridge was about $3.9 million
The resurfacing work taking place in the southern end of the Upper Columbia Valley is scheduled to start June 1st and should finish up by mid-October. The contract value of this project is roughly $2.2 million.
Other road work that may affect those heading to and from the Upper Columbia Valley includes resurfacing on the Trans-Canada Highway west of Golden from Forde Station Road to Moberly Branch Road. The work will involve about 27.6 lane kilometres of asphalt surfacing, using mill and fill asphalt resurfacing.
“This project is out to tender and is scheduled to be awarded at the beginning of June,” said Mukasa.
The Trans Canada touch-up has virtually the same timeline as the work near Canal Flats and should also be done at some point in mid-October.