By Camille Aubin
[email protected]
The provincial Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure is unlikely to complete planned paving projects in the Invermere and Fairmont areas before next spring.
The projects includes two sections of Westside Road been the two communities, one extending 200 metres north from the Westside Road intersection, and another section starting at nine kilometres north of the intersection and extending north approximately 12 kilometres to the cattleguard marking the boundary of the district of Invermere limits. Several roads in the Fairmont area, including the Columbia Lake Road and Fairmont Frontage Road were also slated to be paved.
Okanagan Aggregates Ltd was awarded the project on March 10, 2021, for a cost of $2.96 million. Since “they are working on other projects in the province including emergency work in the Chilcotin/Cariboo area…it is unlikely that any substantial paving will occur this fall (in the Columbia Valley) and most project work will be performed next spring once weather permits,” the ministry recently announced.
The work is intended to make the roads smoother to ride on, and safer for those using them.
In the announcement the Ministry re-iterated its commitment to pave the roads, even if it can’t meet its initial target timeline.
