The new bridge over the Parsnip River is now open, the province said Tuesday, eliminating a key bottleneck along Highway 97 between the Central Interior and the B.C. Peace.
Located just west of the Mackenzie junction, the $30.4-million project replaces a 66-year-old steel truss bridge with an open-top structure and two travelling lanes. The features translate into a greater capacity to handle the heavy loads required to service resource industries like mining, forestry, oil and gas.
"This new bridge replaces the last low overhead along the highway, opening the path for improved transport of goods and equipment in the northeast," Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure Claire Trevena said in a statement.
Replacing the crossing was part of the previous Liberal government's 10-year transportation plan, launched in 2015 as part of the effort to make Highway 97 north easier to negotiate.
Prince George-Mackenzie MLA Mike Morris welcomed the news.
"It was a pet project of mine - that and the Salmon River bridge - when I first got elected in 2013 and it took a lot of internal work to get the ministry to pay attention to it, just because of the price tag," he said.
The federal government contributed $12.9 million to the project, he noted, with the province footing the rest of the bill.
Bottlenecks along the route have long been a sore spot for truckers. Morris said drivers and companies often visited his office when he was first elected to register their complaints.
"Sometimes it'd add $20,000 to the transportation bill to get something over to Alberta and then up north and across into northern B.C. again because of the restriction of the bridge and it was totally unacceptable," Morris said.
With the bridge now open, Morris said the most restrictive point now is the overhead railway crossing just north of Bijoux Falls.
"But they have dug it a little bit deeper and they have made it so they can get some of the high loads through there," he said. "One of these days, they might have to replace it but for the time being it's not too bad."
The bridge also has a sidewalk for walkers and cyclists.
Some work remains. Final paving of the bridge and its approaches will be completed next spring and the old steel truss bridge, built in 1953, will be decommissioned in 2020.
