It's going to be wider, able to take heavier loads and, for safety, there will be a pedestrian crossing added to the new Salmon River Bridge, on Highway 97 north of Prince George.
The $24 million project is part of B.C. on the Move, the provincial government's 10-year transportation improvement plan.
Construction is expected to start next year and be completed in 2017.
This is the second replacement for this bridge as the original wooden bridge deteriorated, said Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Todd Stone.
"The replacement bridge made the front page of the local paper when it opened in October of 1954 - it was described as 'a costly new bridge' that carried the princely price tag of $200,000 back in the day. That was a lot of money back in 1954."
Mike Morris, MLA for Prince George-Mackenzie, started darkening Stone's door a month after Morris was elected in 2013 and telling Stone about the need to replace the 61-year-old Salmon River Bridge.
"Every opportunity I've had to discuss it with Minister Stone I've been doing that and I was glad to see we can knock one off the list," said Morris.
The new bridge will help meet the growing demands from the resource sectors such as oil and gas, LNG and forestry.
"It's a 1954 model bridge. It's served the people well for over 60 years and it's time to accommodate the modern traffic that we have," Morris.
"This is a first step and the Parsnip River Bridge is another one that I've been pushing for and we're looking at that.
"It's going to be an expensive project and the rail overpass up in the Pine Pass is another one but we can only do so much at a time."
Also on the list of projects that are in the works is extending the four laning of Highway 16 West in 2017 and includes the Bunce Road intersection to Blackwater Road, which is about 3.4 km.
Under construction right now is a $5.5 million 2-km passing lane starting at Telechick Road on Highway 16 west of town. It will be completed in the fall. Next month, Highway 97 south sees the start of a $44 million project to widen the highway between the Stone Creek Bridge and the Red Rock weigh station to four lanes.
This project includes increasing the height clearance of the CN Rail overpass to 5.5 metres, which provides better clearance for trucks and their larger loads.
On Highway 97 south of Prince George, design work is underway for almost three kilometres of additional four-laning in between Stone Creek and Williams Road, a project worth almost $14 million to be completed in 2017. The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure will invest up to $2.5 billion to improve British Columbia's transportation network within the next three years.
