British Columbia provincial highway 97C

British Columbia provincial highway 97C, the Okanagan Connector, forms part of an important link between the Lower Mainland and the Okanagan valley around Kelowna. It bisects the Coquihalla Highway at Merritt. Highway 97C is a relatively new route, commissioned in 1991.

Route details

Highway 97C, which is 220 km in total length, begins near Westbank, at a location on Highway 97 known as Drought Hill. The section of Highway 97C east of Merritt is mostly freeway, with a speed limit of 110 kilometres per hour, and has very few, if any, exits along its route. Highway 97C travels on this freeway 82 km northwest to Aspen Grove, where it converges with Highway 5A. The remainder of Highway 97C from Aspen Grove is a regular two-lane highway. Highways 97C and 5A share the 28 km-long route between Aspen Grove and Lower Nicola, where Highway 5A diverges immediately east and Highway 8 begins.

North of the Highway 8 junction, Highway 97C goes north for 42 km to Logan Lake, then northwest for 57 km to Ashcroft on the Canadian National Railway. Highway 97C then travels 6 km west from Ashcroft to where it converges with Highway 1, which takes Highway 97C north for its final 5 km to its end at Highway 97 in Cache Creek.

	Provincial Highways of British Columbia
1 1A 2 3 3A 3B 4 4A 5 5A 6 7 7A 7B 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 17A 18 19 19A 20 21 22 22A 23 24 26 27 28 29 31 31A 33 35 37 37A 39 41 43 49 52 77 91 91A 93 95 95A 97 97A 97B 97C 99 99A 101 395