Castanet

Before, it was quite painful coming at the end of Rutland road and trying to turn left on Old Vernon toward Sexsmith. But, at least, there was a lane to turn right, one to go straightforward and one to turn left. This new deviation or road path, effective today, brings all of us in a single lane at the corner of Old Vernon and Acland road, well, it is worse than worse. I thought it would ease the traffic, it 's not the case at all.

you realise its not done yet right

That was going to be my comment too. Not done yet. Roundabout to come at Acland Road/Rutland Road/Old Vernon Road, then you can take whichever turn or exit off that you like.

While the intersection is a temporary one, it is a very very poor implementation. Its creating traffic backups in a big way and its not even a rush hour. A temporary street light would have made more sense. Two-way stop is just to low volume for such a high volume corner.

Hopefully the round-a-bout is completed before winter.

It's no worse now than it was before.
At least it's getting improved.
That corner was treacherous.

that whole sexsmith /old vernon and 97 intersection is a bloody mess. try turning up sexsmith from the northbound lanes of 97 at 730-8 am. i sit thru 3 or 4 lights at best some times 5 or 6 .the turn signal changes and there are still 3 cars in the intersection coming off of old vernon .you wait for them to clear the intersection then maybe 3 or 4 cars can go.god forbid there is a tractor trailer in front of you.then there is the line up for tim hortons spilling out onto sexmith.it is ridiculous .it is a danger zone

Ok so here is the problem , i am a courier and drive through that area literally a dozen times a day so i see the traffic patterns through the whole day. The problem with the alignment is simply location. Even with a traffic circle it will not be affective because the distance from acland road to the hwy is to short to accommodate the volume of traffic that goes through that area. The traffic will flow through the circle quickly only to meet the line of cars waiting for the light to change at hyw 97 and will back up traffic right through the circle. This will effectively close down the circle and back up traffic down rutland road. You may think that you can just zip down acland to edwards and escape through the light there but no. The edwards light has no turning lane or advanced light so the through traffic slows any left hand turns to only a few cars per light You can turn north there onto the hyw easier but this is an industrial area and there are a continuous line of trucks that also turn right there. There is potential in the short road between rutland and Hyw 97 ( commercial Drive) but until the third lane if finished it will also back up quickly. The only viable option at this point is mccurdy road. It has a long wide access point onto the hyw with 2 lanes turning south and a turning lane north and once the third lane is done it will be easy to merge north onto the hyw. That third lane will be done far before the reids corner area so things are looking up at that spot. As for the hyw : ( until the project is finished there will be waiting times along there : ( nothing you can do there. I feel at the time when they thought to realign rutland road the acland area was the the booming commercial area it has grown into now. You know where they really need to put a traffic circle is at longhill and rifle road where traffic goes over dilworth down to the hyw. That is becoming a very busy road also.

nolanbelanger wrote:Ok so here is the problem , i am a courier and drive through that area literally a dozen times a day so i see the traffic patterns through the whole day. The problem with the alignment is simply location. Even with a traffic circle it will not be affective because the distance from acland road to the hwy is to short to accommodate the volume of traffic that goes through that area. The traffic will flow through the circle quickly only to meet the line of cars waiting for the light to change at hyw 97 and will back up traffic right through the circle. This will effectively close down the circle and back up traffic down rutland road. You may think that you can just zip down acland to edwards and escape through the light there but no. The edwards light has no turning lane or advanced light so the through traffic slows any left hand turns to only a few cars per light You can turn north there onto the hyw easier but this is an industrial area and there are a continuous line of trucks that also turn right there. There is potential in the short road between rutland and Hyw 97 ( commercial Drive) but until the third lane if finished it will also back up quickly. The only viable option at this point is mccurdy road. It has a long wide access point onto the hyw with 2 lanes turning south and a turning lane north and once the third lane is done it will be easy to merge north onto the hyw. That third lane will be done far before the reids corner area so things are looking up at that spot. As for the hyw : ( until the project is finished there will be waiting times along there : ( nothing you can do there. I feel at the time when they thought to realign rutland road the acland area was the the booming commercial area it has grown into now. You know where they really need to put a traffic circle is at longhill and rifle road where traffic goes over dilworth down to the hyw. That is becoming a very busy road also.

there will be no zipping down acland. there is so much semi traffic to the card locks and james western star and overland trucking has a transfer station back in there .that is a busy area at the best of times.coca cola is back in there liquid air and cintas all have trucks going through there all day.rieds corner is already busy all the way up to bullman rd.it is crazy to route rutland road northbound traffic through there.the light at edwards is always backed up .it might be eaier for rutlanders to go down mccurdy and up the highway to head north

I tried it once today, I shant be back for a very long time.
I'd rather use residential streets for my travels, even if the residents there don't like it.

When they figure out how to make the main thoroughfares more efficient, then I will
use them.

Even when all of this is completed (Reid's Corner), it will still be a mess.........3 lanes northbound will funnel into 2 at Edwards and there will be a backlog. They should get rid of the bridge north of Edwards (no purpose anymore) and redesign the highway there (straighten it out) with better and safer turnouts to the University. Will they? Not likely.........every roadway in Kelowna is done for short term (on the cheap)..........5-lane Bennett bridge???..........zero thought process with that and so many others areas.

The new alignment is definitely slower than the old Reids corner intersection and unfortunately it is just as dangerous. I have witnessed near misses both days this week.

At 4pm yesterday, there was a line of cars from the new intersection all the way back to the old Rutland road. I have no recollection of the line ever being 40 - 50 cars deep before.

The traffic circle will get backed up, and people will be waiting.

Unfortunately, there seems to be no desire to actually fix the traffic congestion in this town.

Reids corner should have had an overpass put it in, or better yet.

Overhead 2 lanes from the bridge to Edwards. On-Off ramps only at cooper and hwy 33

Does anyone travel to Lake Country via Glenmore Rd around 730-8? What is the traffic like at that time? I work near airport, coming from North Glenmore. With the amount of time it takes me to get onto highway from Sexsmit, I am thinking it may be quicker to take Glenmore Rd heading north and turn onto hwy 97 and head south from there.

Project page: http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/trans ... edwards-rd

Display Board 3 show another light is going at Finlay Rd. Annoying for yet another light along Hwy 97, but I suppose this could be used to alleviate the pressure at Reid's Corner.

nolanbelanger wrote:Even with a traffic circle it will not be affective because the distance from acland road to the hwy is to short to accommodate the volume of traffic that goes through that area. The traffic will flow through the circle quickly only to meet the line of cars waiting for the light to change at hyw 97 and will back up traffic right through the circle.

The distance from Acland to Hwy97 is almost 1/4 km. Not disagreeing with your assessment, just surprised the amount of congestion for it to back up that far.

nolanbelanger wrote:This will effectively close down the circle and back up traffic down rutland road.

This is one of the things Ministry of Transportation should clear up ... In other countries the general rule is: "Don't enter the roundabout if you know you can't exit it" .. meaning: if you know your exit is blocked, don't go in the roundabout because you'll block everyone else ... (same rule as any other intersection) ... the most MoT has is a minor line in their pamphlet "Tip: Never stop in a roundabout unless traffic conditions require it", which is vague.

gjohns87 wrote:Does anyone travel to Lake Country via Glenmore Rd around 730-8? What is the traffic like at that time? I work near airport, coming from North Glenmore. With the amount of time it takes me to get onto highway from Sexsmit, I am thinking it may be quicker to take Glenmore Rd heading north and turn onto hwy 97 and head south from there.

I stopped using that intersection years ago. I drive through Apaloosa and Hollywood come around Lougheed and come out at the light at Edwards. It is a bit circuitous but beats waiting in traffic at Sexsmith Road and 97.

was just reading old vernon road joining the highway is going to be permanently closed. Was that part of the original plan? I thought they were putting in a traffic circle at Ackland and old vernon road.