Resurfacing work to improve safety, ride on Highway 5A

Approximately 23 kilometres of British Columbia's Highway 5A will be resurfaced this summer to further increase safety and improve the ride along this corridor.

Both lanes of Highway 5A will be resurfaced from the head of Nicola Lake to Stump Lake Ranch. New delineators will be added to this stretch of highway to improve visibility. This work builds on the over $9.5 million invested in Highway 5A improvements since 2001 to improve safety for all motorists.

Other safety improvements coming to Highway 5A include the installation of an additional LED curve warning sign, and a new roadside pullout that will provide a safe site for Commercial Vehicle Safety and Enforcement officers to conduct roadside mechanical inspections. Both projects are in development.

Since 2011, safety improvements and increased enforcement levels have resulted in a 50-per-cent drop in serious collisions involving commercial trucks, and a 70-per-cent drop in truck speeding violations.

Nearly 1,000 vehicles per day use the corridor, with commercial truck traffic accounting for approximately 35 percent of daily traffic. Current traffic volumes are below those of the early 1980s when Highway 5A was the primary route for all traffic between Merritt and Kamloops.