Bypass in Peachland, a good idea?

[matai]

Traffic on highway 97 just keep getting worse, especially in Peachland. It's a pain to drive through it even on normal days, let's not start talking long weekends.

It's normal out there for people to drive 60 in the 90 zone, blocking both lanes of traffic and impeding circulation from Westbank all the way to the Peachland Mall, then the same old farts are going 90 in the 70 zone, then after stopping at the 3 traffic lights, you can usually pass most slow drivers at Renfrew Rd just to be stuck again going 30km/h behind a semi going up the hill at Antler's Beach in the 90 zone until you reach the 4 lane highway.

Do you think the MOTI should 4 lane the whole thing in the upcoming months, like - top of the list project -, or bypass the town? Or do you believe it should stay as is because well, it's Peachland.

Just a reminder: Ponderosa "plans" on adding 5,000 people at the Ponderosa intersection, while New Monaco plans on adding 5,000 people in the middle of Drought Hill - on which construction of a temporary access ramp onto highway 97 should start soon as the developments plans are getting approval by the District.

Share your thoughts.

[nikonfan]

The Peachland bypass is nothing but a pie in the sky illusion that will never happen. There is no way we should spend that kind of money to bypass a town of 5000 people. The argument that it will cut the town in half is a load of bung, it already is cut in half. We all knew when we moved here that it was going to be 4 laned at one point. The lights that have been added in Peachland are just as insane as the ones added in Westbank. They congest traffic.

We need to get a valley wide highway plan to get a highway from the border to Vernon with no lights, overpasses/underipasses, frontage roads. Westbank lights are a nightmare, Peachland lights are a nightmare and Kelowna is a nightmare.

We need to tell the Government to quict stalling, wasting our money on BS, and get to it. We pay the highest gas and gas tax in North America and we have the worst road infrastructure. The amount of fuel being used to sit in endless traffic jams is a crime.
Forget art, symphonies,injection sites for junkies, fluffy feel good causes and use our tax money on us working folks who pay for everything with our ridiculous tax rates. Build us roads so we can get to work in a decent time frame. If the Government is not going to keep up with the growth of a community then quit gobbling up development cost charges, fuel tax, environmental tax and every other tax they nickel and dime us and don't allow unabated growth. They love to take the money just to spend it on their pet projects.

Look at the waste of money Findlater spent on Brown and Elliott. Such a fancy road that does nothing to help traffic and a road that leads to empty derelict buildings! Look at Boucherie, all that time and money for what? A road with one lane in either direction. How stupid do you have to be to go through all that cash and time to have exactly the traffic limit as before? How do these idiots get elected?

[Zoso]

http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-st ... htm#154187

Here's the pie .

[LTD]

what a joke this is, traffic in peachland is not nearly bad enough to justify this if anything 4 lane the road and adding some over passes by the lights would be cheaper than a bypass . Maintenance on a bypass would be more expensive as well due to the elevation it would be at.

[jamapple]

Use that money to make a bypass for Kelowna, where a fender bender at the first set of lights gives everyone nowhere to go .

[Glacier]

what a joke this is, traffic in peachland is not nearly bad enough to justify this if anything 4 lane the road and adding some over passes by the lights would be cheaper than a bypass . Maintenance on a bypass would be more expensive as well due to the elevation it would be at.

This is the same sort of short sighted thinking that got Kelowna and Vernon stuck with a highway through the middle of town. Build the bypass.

[monroe]

I dont know what the "task force" knows but with regards to cost and hwy's infrastructure wouldnt there be other more pressing projects?


...besides, given how and where the connector came to be, it'll always sorta'kina bug me looking at any money put into projects associated with that chunk of road.

[Zoso]

You never know , maybe the ministry is also annoyed with Peachland and would like to bypass it . Highways probably dealt with Peachland and got sick of banging their head on a wall.

[LTD]

funny how the president of the highway 97 task force lives right above the current highway imagine that no wonder he considers this the most important issue for peachlands future

[Zoso]

I would think that penticton is all over this idea . Clear sailing to the cocquihalla .

[JagXKR]

I don't know about all of Penticton but I am for it. So are ALL my friends and family that visit me. They hate that section of road.

[TimmyE]

It doesn't seem shorter as the road goes up and then comes back down again. The proposed route won't make a difference for me.

[GordonH]

It doesn't seem shorter as the road goes up and then comes back down again. The proposed route won't make a difference for me.

My guess its about 5Km's longer +/- 1 Km

[Zoso]

Shorter as in 60 clicks faster .

[voice of reason]

if the highway bypasses peachland it will dry up and blow away