The province is preparing to improve East Shuswap Road in Kamloops, which could start next year.

Transportation Minister Rob Fleming says the road will be resurfaced in 2022. And he says the province is working with Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc to widen it, and make more room for people walking and riding bikes.

“There is, likely, some significant digging and repair of the road base that would be required in combination with resurfacing East Shuswap Road, to get it into a condition that we would hope to see.”

Fleming says surveying work is happening this year, and the full scope of the upgrades that come next year will come out once that’s done.

Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Peter Milobar says East Shuswap Road is in poor shape between Tk’emlups and Pritchard and that the road is getting busier, notions that Fleming says the Ministry of Transportation does not disagree with.

“The long and short is, the road bed needs to be replaced. There’s a need for safer walking on the shoulder, bicycling on the shoulder. It connects in with a couple of wineries. It runs next to the river for large sections of it, and there’s been washouts and caving in of the road as recently as last year. And so a permanent fix needs to be done, and it needs to be properly,” Milobar says.

“It’s a fast growing area with a golf resort, that Tk’emlúps has partnered with for housing. Growing very rapidly. The road is getting more and more traffic on it.”

Fleming also says Tk’emlups and Sun Rivers Development Corporation are working on designs for eventually building a roundabout near Sun Rivers Drive and Chief Eli Larue Way.