Safety improvements identified seven years ago for Highway 1 in Salmon Arm are expected to proceed this fall.
During this year’s virtual Union of B.C. Municipalities convention, held Sept. 22 to 24, the City of Salmon Arm received word from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure that it will soon be starting work on re-configuring the highway through town to improve vehicle traffic and pedestrian safety.
“We heard from the ministry that it is going to go ahead and the RFP (request for proposals) has gone out now,” said Salmon Arm Mayor Alan Harrison. “We’ve seen the specs so we expect that work will take place in October/November.”
The work, proposed initially in a 2013 Trans-Canada Highway Corridor Safety Study completed by the city and ICBC, includes relocating the traffic signal at Ross Street to Fourth Street and extending the highway median at Fourth; the inclusion of a signal with a long westbound left-turn bay at Shuswap Street; a stop controlled ‘right-in-right-out’ at McLeod Street; a signal with a long eastbound left-turn bay at Alexander Street; a stop controlled ‘right-in-right-out’ at Ross Street; and a stop controlled Sixth Street with restricted southbound left turns.
Also getting underway this fall is the construction of the Salmon River Bridge. The work is part of the Salmon Arm West project that includes the four-laning of Highway 1 from 1st Avenue SW to 10th Avenue SW. A $29.7 million contract was recently awarded to Springline Construction Services Ltd. of Delta for the work.
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