RE: Highway 97 Twinning/By-pass at Peachland

Unnfucking believable!

It’s insane.

To think I was angry earlier this year that they were going for signalized intersections instead of interchanges.

Now the entire project is essentially shit canned.

Like seriously, it’s the last 2 lane stretch between Vernon and Penticton, how is it not worthy of a 4 lane upgrade? It’s the fucking backbone of the Okanagan.

The current NDP is the most inept provincial government I have ever seen in BC.

Every single project has been reduced in scale, downgraded from interchanges, or pushed back decades so far on their watch. The lone exception is the SFPH interchange project, but I think that’s because that project was largely pushed for and designed by the Federal Government and Vancouver Port Authority (each contributing a third of the cost).

Correct me if I'm wrong, but are you all running on the assumption that this project was already pre-disposed to needing a new bypass built immediately? I haven't followed it closely but it seems like they've narrowed down shorter term changes and the big bypass is still going to happen but only when they can't do anything else to the existing road in ~20 years (maybe sooner if there's more growth than expected). Sounds fine to me?

Don't get me wrong, driving through Peachland in the summer sucks. That doesn't mean they need to do this immediately though.

It doesn't need to be done immediately, it should have been done 10 years ago.

In all honesty I actually preferred the option of retaining the same general alignment (with a few minor changes) and fully grade separating it than the bypass (since the bypass connects too far west for my liking to the Okanagan Connector)

Key points:

It is the only road connecting the South Okanagan to the North Okanagan in any direct or even remotely direct manor. (all other areas of the Okanagan have at least 2 larger north / south running routes).

It is the only remaining stretch between Vernon and Penticton to be two lanes, which makes it an unnecessary bottle neck and leaves the corridor incomplete.

This project has already been discussed for nearly 5 years now, if not longer.

There are many many many other highway programs and bypasses that have also been shelved recently or phased with completion set for "20 years down the road" which then begs the question, "So, we are just going to build them all at the same time in 20 years? That seems odd and expensive..."

The price for such a project is only going to increase, a lot.

Our current "crisis" is the perfect opportunity to commence such a relatively shovel ready project as this.

Currently there are no major highway upgrades occurring in the entire Okanagan, one of BC's fastest growing and economically important regions (save for maybe a single interchange to commence in a year or so at best) that has underbuilt road infrastructure if compared to nearly any other developed region in the world of similar size. That seems odd to me.

The NDP talk about phasing over decades, but to me I feel such "phasing" should maybe look like this:

From now to 2025: Peachland upgrades with interchanges, the Boucherie Interchange and Winfield upgrades of 97.

2026 to 2030: Further interchange upgrades between Butt Road in West Kelowna and Westlake Road (making the 97 full freeway standard between Butt Road and Abbot Street in Kelowna) along with a rapid bus system along this corridor. At the same time upgrading the UBC access and Airport way to interchanges with some bus improvements.

2031 to 2035: Second crossing built for Kelowna. Further interchange upgrades between the airport and Vernon making the 97 full freeway between the south end of Vernon and UBC plus a true rapid bus system between the Airport to downtown.

2035 to 2040: Figure out how the bypass / go under downtown West Kelowna (now making the 97 essentially a freeway from Summerland to Abbot Street).

2040 and beyond: Finally figure out what to do with the 97 through Kelowna itself / new route.

There.

That is a real 20 year plan that makes the 97 a true freeway from Summerland to Vernon (save for the downtown of Kelowna) that would be fitting for the anticipated population growth (this would still be under built for most areas of Canada, the US, Japan, Europe, etc...) but would at least be adequate and would also allow true rapid bus systems.

What you expect its the NDP. Anyday now i'm expecting them to officially cancel the Fraser Valley Highway 1 upgrades in favour of more studies.

My design for a freeway from Kelowna to the RDOS border. Currently working on Kelowna to the RDNO border. Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?m...K1&usp=sharing

Only thing I'd say is i'd prefer the second lake crossing be south of the existing one to line up to Springfield Road and onto Highway 33 for an eventual "Kootenay Connector" past Big White to Arrow Lakes then south to Castlegar/Highway 3 and north to Revelstoke/Hwy 1.

And it gets even worse. Wasted money on safety improvements without any capacity increase for the 1.7km Goldstream Park segment of the Malahat Highway.

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/t...y-improvements

Fill out the response form decrying this piece of crap proposal. https://feedback.engage.gov.bc.ca/899679?lang=en

Holy shit . What is that 2 lane piece of shit goats trail . Unreal .

Woops, auto-complete resulted in Malabar, but should be Malahat, Trans-Canada Highway.

Only the NDP in B.C. would have the balls to act as if this project is a big deal. A two-lane highway for an AADT of 25K and over 29K in the summer? Anywhere else they would expand the corridor and make the highway four lanes with shoulders, etc. Horgan must be counting on the anti-car crowd in the lower mainland to come through big for him next year. Or does he plan on stepping down before then and not give a shit about traffic congestion and safety not to mention the economy?

Well, the Spoke Road, highway 14 in his riding, is being straightened and widened. A grade separation is even planned after the public feedback disliked an at-grade crossing.

The Capital Regional District leadership complained incessantly about widening this highway. I think the NDP, propped up by the greens, thinks the traffic load will simply stay at the current level while they are in office and for another 4 years.

"Have the balls?". Odd terminology by someone named "corndogger".

Huh?

Are you able to provide a map for the "Kootenay Connector"? Has something like this been proposed at the government level?

I don't think they are making a big deal of this embarrassment. They just think they can get away with it.

And they could realign the highway west, away from the Goldstream River, and widen it, but bowed to the Capital Regional District naysayers.

He is pandering to the Victoria-area anti-car crowd. I don't think the Lower Mainlanders care much.

Do fill out the online feedback and decide it like it richly deserved.

I can't imagine this has ever been considered. It's not a great missing link or anything, and there isn't some huge demand on the existing network in the Kootenays that require it.

Continue over Jumbo Pass and you would be almost in Calgary. Imagine if the Okanagan had the same connectivity to Calgary as it does to the Lower Mainland?

I'm unsure where a route to Arrow and then Kootenay would fork off highway 33.

Dream list of BC highways :
-freeway upgrade of Highway 99 to connect to I5
-third crossing ovwe Burrard Inlet
-full freeway from third crossing through North Shore Vancouver all the way to Whistler and through 99 corridor to Kamloops
-Merritt bypass on 97C
-full freeway from TCH down 97 corridor to US border
-second Okanagan Lake crossing
-freeway upgrade of entire TCH, possibly with Salmon Arm bypass (bridge to north or Turtle Valley to south)
-Coquihalla Extension from Kelowna to Arrow Lakes, Kootenay Lake and over Jumbo Pass to Columbia Valley
-twinning 93 from Radium to Castle Mountain Junction in Banff NP (Sinclair Canyon may require an alternate route possibly from Canal Flats)
-extension of Alberta 11 through to TCH at Donald
-extension of Alberta 40 over Elk Pass to Elkford

Not a map available but have somewhere newspaper clippings from both Kelowna and Castlegar on the project.
It basically went as straight east as you can from Big White (starting just east of the Big White turnoff) to Arrow Lakes and split both north and south.

I took these photos of The Trans Canada Highway and McKenzie Ave in Victoria on August 24th 2020. The new interchange is almost complete.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...f127c468_b.jpgTrans Canada Highway and McKenzie interchange, Victoria B.C. Canada by thegreatscaper, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...828bb563_b.jpgTrans Canada Highway and McKenzie interchange, Victoria B.C. Canada by thegreatscaper, on Flickr

I agree this would be very nice, but where do you build this from OK falls to the US border?