Dozens of business and municipal leaders gathered on Ridley Island on May 19 to mark the completion of the Road, Rail and Utility Corridor.
The ceremony included representatives from the Prince Rupert Port Authority, the federal and provincial government, CN Rail and Canpotex, all of who contributed to the $97 million needed to surround the island with five parallel rail tracks, a two-lane road and a power distribution system.
Those who spoke at the event outlined the many opportunities the completion of the corridor creates in terms of developing additional export capacity through the Port of Prince Rupert.
“The RRUC will expand the diversity of Prince Rupert’s growing port complex and further link Western Canada to a world of opportunity,” said Prince Rupert Port Authority president and CEO Don Krusel.
“This project is symbolic of British Columbia’s leading role in developing new transportation corridors and relationships between Canada and the world’s fastest growing economies of Asia Pacific,” added provincial transportation minister Todd Stone.
As well as highlighting what the completion of the corridor means for the port, Krusel and others noted the significance of having the work completed on time and on budget by local labour. Prince Rupert Constructors, a joint venture between Coast Tsimshian Enterprises (a local First Nations firm), JJM Construction Ltd., and Emil Anderson Construction Inc., completed roughly 75 per cent of the work on the RRUC. Coast Industrial Construction, a partnership between ICON Construction and the Gitxaala Nation (Kitkatla), was responsible for the remaining quarter of construction.
