After several years of waiting, 2021 is the year that construction will be well underway on four-laning Highway 1 through Chase.

The two-phase project covers five kilometres over two phases, and will cost $260 million.

Chase CAO Joni Heinrich says work is well underway on phase one, a 3.3-kilometre section of highway on the west part of Chase. The second phase on the eastern side of Chase will see 1.6 km of highway expanded, and will also see a new interchange built at Brooke Drive and Shuswap Avenue.

“So probably for the next two-to-three years, we’re going to be looking at lots of activity happening along there. But they’ve been very, very good about making sure the traffic isn’t held up for too long. And so they’ve got lots of really good protocols in place to make sure that the traffic flow does move as best as they can do it, while they’re doing construction.”

Heinrich says the project will provide safer access points to Chase and she expects residents will get used to what she calls a “major change.”

“I think maybe some people won’t be crazy about it at first. But I think, overall, once those changes do happen, I think the community will definitely benefit from them.”

The scope of the project has changed substantially under the B.C. NDP government; it will be less than half of the 12 kilometres of work that was first planned when the project was announced in 2017. While the scope of the project has been reduced, the cost has also gone up from $199 million in 2017 to $260 million as of last May.

A virtual flyover of a rendering of the project can be found here.

(Photo: Ministry of Transportation)