The Government of Canada invests in transportation infrastructure improvements at the Port of Prince Rupert to help move Canadian goods to market

November 7, 2018    Prince Rupert, British Columbia    Transport Canada

The quality of Canada’s transportation infrastructure and the efficiency of the country’s trade corridors are key to the success of Canadian firms in the global marketplace. The Government of Canada supports infrastructure projects that create quality middle-class jobs and boost economic growth.

Today, Terry Beech, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport and Member of Parliament for Burnaby North—Seymour, on behalf of the Honourable Marc Garneau, Minister of Transport, announced a major investment of $21.9 million for three projects at the Port of Prince Rupert that will help local businesses compete by strengthening the Prince Rupert gateway and by making investments in port infrastructure that will support future increases in Canadian trade through the Port.

With an investment of $3.2 million, the first project consists of designing tracks and bridges to replace the existing single-track Zanardi Rail Bridge. The bridge is located at the north end of the Ridley Island causeway at the rail entrance to Port of Prince Rupert properties. Canadian National railway’s northern mainline crosses the bridge to transport goods to and from all terminals in the Port of Prince Rupert. This design project is the first step in project implementation. Once constructed, the project will help to reduce delays and improve the flow of trade.

With an investment of $3.7 million, the second project involves designing new rail tracks that serve new terminals and the new logistics park being proposed for the Port of Prince Rupert. By leveraging and expanding the existing Road Rail Utility Corridor development platform on Ridley Island, new development sites will be connected to the Canadian National railway mainline. The Road Rail Utility Corridor, used by many commercial industries in the area, was built specifically to enable future development of bulk export terminals from Ridley Island.  When constructed, this project would also help to reduce delays, increase overall terminal capacity and improve the flow of trade.

Provincial, territorial and municipal governments, Indigenous groups, not-for-profit and for-profit private-sector organizations, federal Crown Corporations, Canadian Port Authorities, and National Airport System Airport Authorities are all eligible for funding under the National Trade Corridors Fund.

This investment is in addition to $15 million committed to the Prince Rupert Port Authority for an Asia-Pacific Gateway initiative to support the construction of a two-lane road that will connect the Fairview Container Terminal to Ridley Island. Construction is scheduled to start at the beginning of 2019.

The project is expected to have significant economic and employment benefits by creating an estimated 100 jobs during the construction.

Once completed, by eliminating the need for trucks to travel through the downtown and the populated areas of Prince Rupert, the Connector Road project will separate truck movements from community pedestrian areas and private vehicle traffic flows. The project will also reduce travel times from the Fairview Container Terminal to the Ridley Industrial Site from nearly 30 minutes to 8 minutes, and will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions.