Transportation
While there are numerous airports and rail stations in the municipalities, automobile and truck transportation is dominant in the Peace Region. The road system uses controlled-access highways with secondary roads branching off. Some of the more travelled, or more populated, roads are paved; Rolla Road, Sweetwater Road, Cecil Lake Road, Rose Prairie Road, Beatton Airport Road, Prespatou Road, Milligan Creek Road, and Upper Halfway Road.
Sharing the roads with industrial traffic often creates problems for local residents. Heavy trucks beat up roads, create washboard ruts, and kick up dust onto yards and crops. Meanwhile, children and animals wonder onto the roads and farmers with slow moving agricultural vehicles must contend with high speed traffic. Winter driving is a challenge as large snow falls or drifts block roads.
All road maintenance and repair is done by Caribou Road Services in the South Peace and Yellowhead Road and Bridge in the North Peace. These companies, which answer to the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, provide services like grading, dust suppression, snow plowing, sanding, gravelling, and debris removal. The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure prioritizes and funds road construction and improvements. Most of their budget is used on highway projects, but they do have several programs for rural roads. The Oil and Gas Rural Road Improvement Program invested nearly $100 million in rehabilitating existing public roads in Northeastern BC. The Interior and Rural Side Roads Program has invested about $50 million per year over the last few of years to make rural roads more reliable and safe.
Role of the Peace River Regional District
The Peace River Regional District (PRRD) has no direct role providing transportation–related services. The PRRD does not own any transportation rights-of-way or provide public transit services. While all road construction and maintenance is funded by the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, several Regional District board members participate on the ministry’s Regional Transportation Advisory Committee (Northeast) which advises the minister of regional priorities.
Role of the Official Community Plan
The Official Community Plan (OCP) includes objectives and policies to guide the Regional Board when confronted with transportation-related issues. New development can influence the transportation network by changing or increasing the amount and type of vehicles that travel along corridors, whether they be daily commuter trips or commercial/industrial vehicles accessing the highway. The OCP can make the impacts on transportation a consideration when reviewing development proposals.
Visitor Comments
I am writing in regards to the section of highway at the bottom of the South Taylor Hill. This is a very busy, dangerous section of the highway which seems to get over looked. In the last kilometre of highway before the Peace River bridge there are four roads, (two that are not needed), that come out into the downhill traffic on the highway. The road that goes into the Government gravel pit is not necessary as the gravel pit is bordered by the Johnson Road and the pit could easily exit onto this road and then onto the highway. The Taylor Front Rd and the Taylor Flats Subdivision Rd are already connected and could join onto the highway at one intersection. These changes would eliminate two of the four roads at the bottom of the hill making it a much safer section of road, then if turning lanes were installed at the two remaining intersections on and off the highway it would be a lot safer, wouldn’t it?!! We live in this area and have seen some terrible accidents on this hill! It would be nice to feel safe when we are trying to get home, instead of feeling like we are lucky that we made it off the highway again!
When the highway in Charlie Lake was redone all of the roads that exited onto the highway were removed and joined together to make less exits because this was a dangerous hill. The Charlie Lake hill is more like a speed bump compared to the South Taylor Hill, yet the dangerous conditions in this area are ignored! When can the residents in the South Taylor area expect someone to pay attention and do something about these dangerous conditions? Is it going to take fatalities? Lets hope not!
We live right below the road that enters the government gravel pit that borders Johnson road. When we moved here we were told by the Ministry of Highways that this road would not be a concern for us, as it was scheduled to be closed. This road has turned out to be a big concern for us! The dust that comes from this road covers everything that we own. When there is road construction going on this road is extremely busy and it is very hard to get any dust control. When they started hauling out of the pit this summer I started making calls to have the dust controlled, it took until the 2nd of August to get any dust control. This year I have been given ten different names and phone numbers to call! We have been told everything from - it is not our responsibility to control the dust to there haven’t been enough complaints for us to do anything about the dust! I personally feel that one complaint is too many and nobody should have to spend hours of their time tracking down phone numbers and making calls, only to be told to call somebody else. It is the same every year that they use this pit , only twice in the 12 years that we have lived here have we ever had them put down some calcium. The Ministry of Highways knows when this road is going to be busy, so why not control the dust before it becomes a problem? This is a government pit, so is the government then not responsible for maintaining it? We realise that this is not a problem for a lot of people but it is a problem for us, voters, in your area. We would like to invite you to stop by and sit on our patio with us, we could have a refreshment and enjoy the dust together!
Very Concerned Resident,
Jodi Hickey