Quote:
Originally Posted by Glacier
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Add that one to the bridge over the lake bypassing Salmon Arm, the Vernon bypass, the Peachland bypass, and the east Kamloops bypass.
All good projects that should have been built decades ago, but will probably never see the light of day, especially with the anti-highway culture of the South Coast (that dictates what happens in most of BC).
The only one of those that has a somewhat real chance of happening in the next 10 years is the Peachland bypass, which IMO is the most important given that it will make the 97 4 lanes from north of Vernon to Penticton.
It could be worse though, at least over the last decade or so the corridor did see some major improvements (the really nice 4 lane stretch with climbing lanes along Wood Lake that replaced the 2 lane stretch along the shoreline, now that was really really really slow back in the day), the new bridge (which until 2008 was 3 lanes and had a lift span for when taller vessels needed to cross under...) and the 2 interchanges to the south, and the quite impressive 4 lag stretch that runs north of Summerland to just past Great Ranch Rd. that was blasted into the cliff side along the lake. So imagine driving that same stretch in 2007, 2 lanes the entire way between Summerland and Peachland, a 3 lane bridge sometimes closed to allow boats to pass (with 2 less interchanges), only 4 lanes though Kelowna (not 6), and 2 lanes along the entire shore of Wood Lake.
Now, all that said, in a perfect world the entire stretch of the 97 from at least the 97/97A junction north of Vernon to Penticton should be a freeway, but in all honesty I would settle for the Peachland bypass to be built (with interchanges) and a new freeway grade 4 lane route / bypass from West Kelowna to the UBC campus area (which obviously would include a new bridge).
South of the 3A / 97 junction the route can remain as two lanes (I actually personally don't want it to be expanded to 4 lanes through Oliver / Osoyoos area because that actually would destroy some of the character there, unlike from Penticton to Kelowna).