Feds spending $153.7M on new bridge, rail infrastructure and port facilities in Prince Rupert, B.C.

PRINCE RUPERT, B.C.—Three infrastructure projects on Canada’s West Coast, worth a combined $311 million, are getting a significant boost from Ottawa’s National Trade Corridors Fund.

The federal government said Sept. 5 it has approved $153.7 million in funding for work on a key bridge, rail infrastructure and a logistics hub in Prince Rupert, B.C.

With the federal backing, the Prince Rupert Port Authority, in partnership with CN, plans to spend a total of $122 million on the Zanardi Bridge and Causeway project. The job includes construction of a new two-track bridge across the Zanardi rapids on the south side of Kaien Island, rehabilitation work on the exiting single-track bridge and upgrades to the causeway to nearby Ridley Island.

The second project also focuses on enhancing rail infrastructure in the port area, which currently handles about 27 million tonnes annually, but expects to nearly double that over the next decade. The port authority plans to spend $100 million building the rail lines and other infrastructure that will clear the way for a large bulk transload facility and an off-dock container yard.

Construction of the transload and warehouse operation on a 25-hectare site on South Kaien Island is the final aspect of the interconnected projects. Led by the economic development arm of the Metlakatla First Nation, the new import facility is expected complement an existing export terminal. The $89 million site will be capable of handling 175,000 twenty-foot containers each year.

Between them, the three projects are expected to create 3,100 jobs during construction.