The Ten Mile Slide site on Highway 99 near Lillooet will be expanded to two lanes by the spring of 2021.

The Ministry of Transport says that will be result of phase-two of a $60-million-dollar project along that section of highway.

Lillooet Mayor Peter Busse says phase one allowed heavier trucks and busses to pass through, which he says has benefited his community.

“Definitely. Obviously from the tourism side, and the Sea-to-Sky and BC Destinations have listed Lillooet as a destination in that. We’ve noticed after the phase one obviously a vast number of (tour) busses that we appreciate coming through. So from the tourism side, definitely an increase, and also an increase in the smaller traffic; RVs, so on and so forth.”

“We can only hope and anticipate that phase two will be, as well. And then we will get back to where our cost of doing business in Lillooet will become much more reasonable. Especially for our forestry, groceries and all forms of transport.”

Busse says the Ministry and the contractor, Flatiron Constructors, are meeting early next month to determine the exact schedule of construction.

The province estimates 1,600 vehicles pass through the Ten Mile Slide site per day, which currently has flaggers on either end of it 24 hours a day. It calls the site “one of the most technically challenging sites to maintain in the province.”