An open letter to Mayor Nancy Cooper, CSRD chair, Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, MLA George Abbott and MP Colin Mayes:
Although there have been numerous Trans-Canada Highway accidents in and around Salmon Arm in the 45 years I’ve lived here, it amazes me that, so far, no major disasters have occurred at the bridges crossing the CPR line at Tappen and the Salmon River just west of town – both sites being “accidents waiting to happen.”
Please do not wait for one before these bridges are re-designed and built.
Just as important, an up-to-date study of the flooding of the Salmon River needs urgent attention. Without this, re-building the Salmon River bridge will be only a short-term solution, so ultimately wasteful.
The current plan of widening the Trans-Canada west of Salmon Arm for a few hundred metres, though useful, pales in importance to these other issues. And whether the Trans-Canada gets re-routed in the future or not, both bridge sites will continue, always, to be important crossings, and are the financial responsibility of the federal and provincial governments, while our local governments should be leading the way in demanding a solution to these problems.
I add my voice to the many others requesting our local council and regional district spearhead action, now, with the two senior governments in addressing these issues.
Barbara Grier
