The federal and provincial governments recently announced the construction of two additional passing lanes along Hwy. 16 between Burns Lake and Smithers.
One of the passing lanes will be built at Broman Lake, about 35 km west of Burns Lake. This new westbound passing lane will be approximately 1.7 km long and will be built in 2018.
The second passing lane will be located at Tyhee Lake, approximately 10 km east of Telkwa, between Houston and Smithers. This new eastbound passing lane will be two km long and will be built in 2017.
The recent announcement also included three other passing lanes - at Cluculz Lake Hill, about 40 km west of Prince George; at Toboggan Lake near Smithers; and at Rainbow Hill, 30 km east of Prince Rupert.
“One of the commitments we made in B.C. on the Move was to increase the number of passing lanes on highways 16 and 37,” said Todd Stone, B.C. Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure. “We’ve already built three and this new investment means five more safe opportunities to pass slower vehicles.”
Director of Electoral Area E of the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako Eileen Benedict recently met with minister Stone to ask for more passing lanes along Hwy. 16. Benedict said the main reason for the request was to increase safety along the highway between Burns Lake and Smithers.
“There needs to be more passing lanes because of industrial traffic going to Prince Rupert,” she said. “We always have people who want to pass them; they can’t stay behind a truck, and it makes it dangerous because sometimes people decide to pass them in places that are not safe.”
“So having more passing lanes makes it a lot more convenient, and the traffic seems to flow a lot better that way,” she added.