The signs are there, but nothing is happening – yet.

A large sign proclaiming the provincial government’s plan to keep the economy moving and upgrading the highway to four lanes between Kamloops and the Alberta border was first seen last week, just east of Canoe on the Trans-Canada Highway.

Posted at a two-lane section of the highway on a curve, it looks like this would be the next section to be four-laned.

Perhaps not.

Officials of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure were unwilling to divulge any information on proposed projects.

Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon was, however.

“What we’re signalling is that we are going to be undertaking a massive joint investment with the federal government in improving the Trans-Canada Highway,” he said Tuesday, indicating work will also be done on the Okanagan and Cariboo corridors as well. “That means people are going to see even above and beyond some of the improvements which have been made already.”

Falcon says the government is going to accelerate the improvements to help counteract some of the current economic turbulence.

And while the work is not going to begin in the immediate future and decisions have not yet been made on which projects will get underway first, Falcon says the signs are to let the public know Victoria supports road improvements.

“So really, what the signs are doing is signalling there’s going to be work underway at different parts of the corridor, people should be aware there could be construction up ahead, a bit of warning,” he says. “Secondly, it lets people know it’s part of a broader, long-term effort to improve the corridor between Kamloops and the Alberta border.”

Falcon says ministry officials are looking through a whole package of potential projects that could be accelerated in order to get work started immediately in the spring.

“The TCH and 97 corridor are going to be significant beneficiaries of some of the accelerated projects,” he said.

Falcon says the province plans to take advantage of the fact Ottawa has recently made clear there is federal support for infrastructure programs.

“That’s music to my ears, I can tell you,” says Falcon of the verbal promises. “Before year-end we should be able to have a summary of the scale of improvements we will be accelerating.”

Falcon says transportation officials are looking at so-called shelf-ready projects, ones that are ready to roll out once funding is available.

“We’ve been moving forward with engineering and design works so we didn’t slow down the pace when the feds finally sign off,” he said.