IT’S HARD to imagine many areas of co-operation between the NDP and the provincial Liberals in the trench warfare of BC politics but the years-long effort to improve the roads into the Nass Valley and the valley itself is one of them.
Conceived and started during the NDP years of 1991-2001 and then finished after the Liberals were elected and now bolstered by improvements over the subsequent years, the vastly improved Hwy113, the Nisga’a Highway, is one of those good news public sector stories.
Long gone, for instance, are the days when a driver just never knew what might be lurking around the corner while hugging the almost impassable track that curved around Lava Lake.
The cost may have seemed high – $54 million for a series of projects followed by $32 million to connect Gingolx (Kincolith) at the mouth of the Nass River with the rest of the Nass Valley at Laxgalts’ap (Greenville).
Yet the improvement in travel times, in safety and in convenience has drawn the Nass Valley closer to Terrace and vice versa.
Without this vastly improved road network, the economic development goals stemming from the Nisga’a treaty would be almost impossible to contemplate.
For those who have not ventured on Hwy113 for years or for those who have never done so, the trip is outstanding.