Okanagan Second Crossing Project

[OldIslander]

I admit up front I have not read this entire thread, nor the OP's document. So I apologize in advance, if this has come up already.

Has a 'passenger only' ferry been considered -- maybe bicycles allowed, too? With that, you'd need a big parking lot near the west shore wharf, and a dock on the east side, probably near the foot of Bernard St. This would cost an Infinitesimal fraction of the cost of a 2nd bridge.

On a side note (I'm dating myself here... ), does anyone else remember the ferries before the first bridge. In the early '50's we lived in Vernon, and visited family in Penticton on a regular basis. As a little kid, I can still remember driving onto the Pendozi for the trip across the lake.

[casey60]

Trench Road area has had several slides over the years. One duplex had to go. Also at the bottom of Gordon at the North end has been slides. City had to pay out the owners. See the concrete lego blocks that were put up there years ago.
What the valley and Kelowna needs is a real bypass. Not another bridge that leads straight into town with a bunch of traffic lights. There was a design in the mid 1970's. A complete design. second bridge, bypass etc. Guess businesses did not like it as they were, and still are, afraid they may loose business. I suggest in summer traffic is so bad that people rather get the heck out then stop and stay.
So many promises by this Lieberal government. Remember the twining to Prince George by Campbell? Does it really takes 12+ years? And yes suddenly there is the widening of 97. Like see what we do for you? And now this second bridge plan. Carrots carrots and more carrots. Once elected it all slows down to a trickle again.

[kgcayenne]

Let's also avoid destroying Rose Valley Regional Park. I simply cannot believe that's even a friggin option.

This article sure took long enough to be written: https://www.castanet.net/edition/news-s ... htm#193713

“Ruining a park, potentially harming a watershed and scarring neighbourhoods with this eyesore just doesn't seem like a very good plan,” said resident Isabel Kirtzinger.

Rose Valley Reservoir does not exactly have a great discharge and recharge cycle (remember last year's algae issue?). To run a highway adjacent to it is foolish. Something tells me that the people who cooked this up have no expertise in watershed management and weren't really interested in presenting anything of real value, which is most likely because this is just an election ploy. That's the only reasoning I can come up with here for such an asinine plan to destroy a park in which the Province, Regional District, and many volunteer groups have invested a great deal. In fact, this second crossing alignment zone, as indicated in the map of the above news story, shows that even Bear Creek Park is at risk. April Fools is over MoTI! Get your heads out of your anuses.

Another thought that crossed my mind: there is a lot of groundwater in the area, and homeowners are already experiencing difficulties this year, now imagine if construction crews come in and tamper with the upland watershed and displace even MORE groundwater when they compact the base for the roadway.
https://www.castanet.net/edition/news-s ... htm#193766

[Urban Cowboy]

So many promises by this Lieberal government. Remember the twining to Prince George by Campbell? Does it really takes 12+ years? And yes suddenly there is the widening of 97. Like see what we do for you? And now this second bridge plan. Carrots carrots and more carrots. Once elected it all slows down to a trickle again.

If you weren't so blatantly biased toward the NDP, you'd maybe pick up on how asinine your statement regarding the widening of Hwy 97 is.

No project gets completed overnight, and the one you speak of here has been on the radar for quite some time, not as a last minute election ploy as you'd have people believe.

The highway has in just the last couple of years seen the Oyama bypass completed, the Bailey intersection completed, barriers put in place all the way from Kelowna to Vernon, as well as Hwy 97 widened from Vernon through Armstrong. Let's not forget Peachland to Summerland as well.

This doesn't even take into consideration all the stuff that has been done on the other side of the bridge through West Kelowna which has also had multiple interchanges put in, as well as the highway made safer with median barriers.

So basically don't treat us as stupid with your use of the term "suddenly" which I'm quite certain you know is nonsense.

Oh and Westside Road has had millions put into it over the last five years as well.

Your idols did absolutely nothing in the Okanagan, given they couldn't get any of their ilk elected here, so it was their way of punishing us.

So now you know the real story, as opposed to your alternate facts.

[KyMoHa04]

I don't know if the conversation has already been started, but I am writing this in hopes of bringing to light issues surrounding the proposed bypass in West Kelowna/Westbank.

Currently people are extremely concerned over the fact that a "proposed bypass" will be going through not only one major park but two, through a watershed area that provides water to West Kelowna residents and over a beautiful mountainside, home to the Okanagan's diverse wildlife.

Many are confused as to the why this is "projected" by the Ministry of Transportation as necessary. If you consider the bypass will (according to their maps) connect right back at the new Westside Road Interchange, funneling traffic back onto the bridge and into Kelowna's traffic system. "If" a second crossing is built, it is assumable that the "bypass" will connect with that, but the plan of a second crossing is far from fruition. If this proposed bypass gets built then will it guarantee a second crossing be built or will it just be an eyesore that destroyed what the residents and visitors to our (whole Okanagan) community value and cherish?

Parks - So many people utilize our parks in the Okanagan, visitors and residents alike. It is a major reason people come here to vacation and live. We should protect our parks and green spaces before it is gone. We cannot allow our parks, not just those in our own backyards, but throughout the Province to be destroyed.

Watershed - I do not know how many people get their drinking water from the Rose Valley Reservoir, but it is enough to cause MAJOR concern as to the impact of a highway system going through a watershed area. The people in the Rose Valley area are also already experiencing ground water issues in their yards (sink holes too), what will happen if/when they start blasting and disrupting the rocks and aquifers in that area. What environmental impact will a major roadway have on a community watershed/source?

Wildlife Habitat - I know that the Okanagan is the home to an amazing amount of diverse wildlife. Putting in a major bypass will disrupt the habitat of those animals we value wish to conserve for many generations. I know it is also home to California Bighorn Sheep of which I believe were transplanted here to repopulate some years ago, just don't know the details. What will happen to their rangeland? They are beginning to flourish again in this area only to be disrupted and shoved out.

Tourism - What will happen to the tourism when the mountain side is stripped and blasted and no longer? What sort of impact will this have on tourism should this happen?
Homes - This proposed bypass will affect many residents throughout the West Kelowna/Westbank community. People move to the Okanagan for the beauty and ease of getting out to nature. Families bought homes in the West Kelowna/Westbank areas to be close to the parks, nature, quite neighbourhoods and wonderful schools. By creating a bypass that goes so close (and through) all of what we hold dear is wrong. This will devastate many neighbourhoods with both noise pollution as well as vehicle pollution.

I am sure there are MANY more concerns regarding this "proposed bypass". I wrote this to get the conversations started and to let people know that we really do need to look into a better option.

Above all, PLEASE let your thoughts on this be known before it is too late. If we let them willfully destroy this beautiful mountainside, what is to stop any other "Ministry" from deeming your park, backyard, water source, and neighbourhoods fair game?

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/en-ca/512/484/701/stop-the-destruction-of-our-urban-parks-in-the-central-okanagan.-say-quotnoquot-to-the-bypass./

Thank you!

[Tyler Chartrand]

Interesting. I too see issues with a bypass but aside from the park and watershed issues I think the biggest concern for me is the asthetic impact to the city.

Currently Knox mountian is a very accessible space from downtown. Putting a second highway through the north end of the city is going to make downtown feel like downtown Westbank....like a sardine in a can made of highways.

[BoBillyBob]

*Topics merged. Thanks BoBillyBob

[Queen K]

BUMP

https://www.castanet.net/edition/news-s ... htm#269213

The second bridge was going to cost about $700 million 20 years ago, which means the bill would be about $1 billion today.

In other words, no one on Kelowna city council is holding their breath.

“While we haven’t totally written off the second crossing,” Coun. Gail Given said, “the evidence kind of points in a different direction.”



Annnnddddd the Rotary Marsh Bird Sanctuary, and the property values of Royal View etc, and and and have all been SAVED!

No second bridge. Too damned expensive. What a surprise. Not.
Should have done the first new bridge correctly in the first place. But no.

I vote for a road to be built between Naramata and Kettle Valley Estates. Close it in the Winter if need be. Reopen for emergencies only.

No second bridge. Thank GOD!

[Queen K]

Maybe they should have built a larger bridge in the first place. Hey Chrispy, the bridge is not the bottleneck, it's the flippin' lights that have traffic backed up before hitting the bridge.

The last time I was on the bridge, I was the first one on because I was at the light first when it turned red. Not a single car ahead of me on the bridge. Maybe they could spread out traffic by getting rid of lights.

I agree and would add that having an on-ramp at the base of Bridge Hill might have been a nice to have for locals but is a disaster for traffic flow.

removed many others were dead on. Bennett Bridge wasn't thought out very carefully in the first place.

removed

[Anonymous123]

It looks like the current City council considers the project to be dead in the water.

https://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna/269213/Kelowna-council-not-waiting-for-second-crossing-of-Okanagan-Lake

[Glacier]

The second bridge idea was dreamed up by Christy Clark who had no clue whatsoever about local politics and geography. She just heard something about how traffic sucks in Kelowna, and applied her Lower Mainland understanding to it by promising to look at a second crossing because she thought it would buy her some votes.

[alanjh595]

Maybe it is time to start considering light rail, like in Vancouver, with a double ferry crossing, like the Seabus in Vancouver?

Time to promote and encourage people to leave their cars at home.

[Symbonite]

One of the factors is because only 15% of travelers use clement and the rest still goes through the main road. OF COURSE IT DOES because its not a strait forward way to use clement without having to go through a few lights and all they way down Ellis to pop out on the really busy Spall to go back onto Harvey. To have it used as a proper throughfare they have to direct all traffic through there with MINIMAL Stops...

If they do decide to do a through fare...PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD use on/off ramps and not lights...whats the point of a throughfare if it ends up being another Springfield...

and the feet dragging on any of the governments of course the more you wait the more expensive it gets...especially if you follow Horgans plan on Union only work...but thats another Conversation there.

No vision whatsoever...I wonder with the the political and money climate of today and people just mad about everything is would the Coq have ever been built today...probably not but if you dont build a bridge now its going to cost more and be harder to install when more infrastructure/buildings gets put in the way.

[monilynno]

Build proper bypasses, fix Westside road, and push a road through to Penticton on the 201.

[Catri]

The second bridge idea was dreamed up by Christy Clark who had no clue whatsoever about local politics and geography. She just heard something about how traffic sucks in Kelowna, and applied her Lower Mainland understanding to it by promising to look at a second crossing because she thought it would buy her some votes.

You give Christy too much credit, there's been talk of a second crossing and "North End Connector" freeway since the 1980s, well before her time. She did order a study into the possibility of a second crossing as a goodie for Ben Stewart giving up his seat for her when she lost hers in Vancouver, but I doubt even that was her idea.