CVSE improvements and speed data-collection system to be installed on Highway 5 North

KAMLOOPS — Safety improvements are slated for a section of Highway 5 North in 2024.

In a news release issued Thursday (March 7), B.C.’s Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure announced $2.2 million in funding will go toward a Commercial Vehicle and Safety Enforcement (CVSE) pullout on Highway 5 around 12 kilometres south of Barriere. Construction is set to begin this spring and scheduled to be complete by this fall.

The funding comes as municipal leaders in the North Thompson have called for improvements on the Highway 5 North corridor following multiple fatal accidents in 2023.

Barriere Mayor Ward Stamer applauded the funding but noted there is a ton more work to be done to improve safety.

“Some of the initiatives we are looking at, even some of the ones that we have had this year that have been positive, whether it is a reduction in the speed zone in Fish Trap which is only for the winter time,” said Stamer. “Sure those are ways of slowing the traffic down but there are still some fundamental infrastructure needs, including a lot of rock scaling, moving the road, widening the road. Sure additional passing lanes are great but there is a lot of other improvements that are needed on the highway as well”

Additionally, the ministry states a new average-speed data-collection system will be launched between Kamloops and Avola. Speed data will be collected with cameras that will calculate the average speed of vehicles travelling between two distant points along Highway 5 North.

The ministry says the system will provide accurate information about vehicle speeds along the highway and help inform future decisions to further improve safety. The cameras will be used only for data gathering and not speed enforcement, which is the responsibility of police.

The cameras are set to be installed in spring 2024.

“They have electronic logs now, there is speed-limiters that are going to be mandatory by, I think, the end of April. I don’t know how many trucks that will affect, I’m not sure,” added Stamer. “They are going to be able to look at where traffic is able to flow freely, where they got balled up. So I’m totally on board with getting more data, but that also includes mandatory dashcams, we are still waiting for that, everybody supported that at UBCM, all the municipality in BC supported our initiative. We are still waiting for the Minister to make that happen.”