Councillor Cameron Stolz, Mayor Dan Rogers, Minister of Transportation Shirley Bond, Henry Remple, and Minister of Forests and Range Pat Bell, do the initial digging to mark the start of Boundary Road construction

Prince George. B.C. – With the toss of some gravel, the long awaited construction of Boundary Road in Prince George is set to begin.

Representatives from the City, Province and the private investors, took time this afternoon to celebrate the awarding of the construction contract to WIC construction and to kick off the work.

At a gathering just off Gunn Road, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, Shirley Bond, said the construction of Boundary road is a key element in the economic future of Northern B.C, “ Today says, we are ready for business , we are ready to move forward.”

That moving forward means the development of a logistics park and light industrial park. Some of the property is on lands owned by the Prince George Airport, while the bulk of the property is privately held. Henry Remple is one of the private land holders who have put up $6.5 million dollars towards the cost of the development of Boundary Road.

Boundary Road has been on the radar for the City of Prince George since the 1970’s. It is the first step in developing a ring road around Prince George that will keep heavy truck traffic out of the downtown core, provide   a much quicker route between highway 97 south and highway 16 east, and will act as a dangerous goods route as well.

The overall cost of the project is $28 million, with the Federal and Provincial Government’s contributing $7.5 million each, while the City and Private land developers contributed $6.5 million each.

The construction of Boundary Road is expected to be a significant positive factor for Initiatives Prince George as it moves forward to sell the Logistics Park development on the Airport Lands. IPG CEO Tim McEwan says while there has been a great deal of interest expressed by   Asian logistics companies, the actual construction of the road will show that the project is “real” . “This construction will open up 3,000 acres of  light industrial lands” says McEwan who says the construction also marks the culmination of two years of work that involved everything from convincing the Agricultural Land reserve to release the properties from the ALR to convincing the senior levels of government  that this was a project worthy of their financial support.

Construction of the Boundary Road intersection with highway 97 south will be completed as part of the Cariboo Connector upgrades already underway.

The two lane roadway is expected to be complete in the fall of 2011.   Construction will include:

• 6.8 kms of undivided 2 lane  roadway including bike lane
• Pedestrian sidewalk complete with street lighting
• storm, sanitary  and watermains
• new intersections at highway 16 East and Highway 97 South
• roundabout intersection  at  current Boeing/Gunn Road intersection

Private land owner Henry Remple says he is hopeful of starting the first phase of his logistics park as soon as he has detailed information on his property’s access to Boundary Road.

Dean Birks

Royal LePage Prince George