B.C.’s Ministry of Transportation is considering creating a counter-flow lane on the W.R. Bennett Bridge as a way to ease congestion during the morning weekday rush.
The option is under consideration, Ministry district manager Steve Sirett told West Kelowna council earlier this week following a presentation about the ongoing Central Okanagan Planning Study looking at the Highway 97 corridor between Greata Ranch just south of Peachland and Kelowna’s Airport north of the city.
“Absolutely we are,” said Sirett when asked by Mayor Doug Findlater if a counter-flow lane to create three lanes eastbound on the bridge during the morning rush was being considered. Currently there is a fixed configuration of two lanes eastbound and three lanes westbound on the bridge.
Findlater said he feels more capacity on the bridge is required, especially if the province—as it has indicated in recent years —feels there is not an urgent need for a second crossing at this time.
According to Sirett, the existing bridge is currently not operating at capacity and is expected to remain that way until 2040.
Related: Study shows Okanagan Lake crossing options
He told West Kelowna council the Central Okanagan Planning Study, started in 2014 under the former Liberal government when Premier Christy Clark was the MLA for Westside-Kelowna (now Kelowna West), will use information gleaned from a regional transportation study and a City of Kelowna study to form its final recommendations. Both local studies are currently underway.
But the pace of work by the ministry was questioned by Coun. Bryden Winsby, who noted the study started as a $2 million, two-year exercise but now appears slated to become a seven-year endeavour. Asked about the cost, Sirett said even with the longer timeframe it is still on budget.
Last year, NDP Transporation Minister Clare Trevena told Kelowna-Lake Country MLA Norm Letnick in the Legislature the study had been put on hold at the request of the City of Kelowna. But city transporation officials said they were unaware of any request that the province halt its work. They said they felt the provincial study was too narrow in its focus.
Related: Minster says Highway 97 study is on hold
Meanwhile, Sirett said the ministry plans to start a detailed planning study of the Highway 97 Glenmore/Beaver Lake Road area, similar to the separate study it is doing of the highway through Peachland.
The Peachland study is looking at the possibility of a Highway 97 bypass route in the hills above the municipality. Sirett said the final phase of the Peachland study will take 18 months and start this fall. It will identify a preferred bypass route and a preferred method of improving the existing highway. After that, one of the two preferred options will be selected but completion of the project could be years away.
As for the new Highway 97 Glenmore/Beaver Lake Road study, it will also start in the fall and take two years.
In an email from the ministry to the Capital News responding to questions about the status of the Central Okanagan Planning Study, the ministry says evaluation of a second lake crossing will be part of the final phase, set to start in late 2019.
With the regional Sustainable Transportation Partnership of the Central Okanagan study and the City of Kelowna’s transportation plan both not slated for completion until late next year, the provincial study, which will use findings from both plans, is now not expected to wrap up at least until 2021.
Originally, the study was scheduled to be complete in 2016.
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