Bypass report delayed
A report from a government task force studying the feasibility of a Peachland bypass has been delayed.
Initial plans by the Ministry of Transportation were to present the report at an open house in 2017. However, that meeting will now take place “later in 2018,” according to an email from the ministry.
“It’s strange that we haven’t heard anything about the study for months,” said Peter Warner, a member of a community group that favours a bypass as opposed to widening Highway 97.
The group, with more than 800 members, believes a new highway routing would make life quieter and more pleasant in the town. But an opposing group says a new highway in the hills west of central Peachland would be disruptive to some neighbourhoods and cause environmental damage.
“I would hope that this study hasn’t fallen off the government’s radar, because this is one of the province’s fastest-growing regions and they have to be paying attention to it,” said Penticton Liberal MLA Dan Ashton. “I know the NDP government is reviewing some transportation projects, but this particular Peachland study is at a very early stage, and I certainly hope they carry on with the planning work that’s been done so far.”
Peachland has the only remaining two-lane stretch of Highway 97 in the Okanagan from north of Vernon to south of Penticton.
The final report from the study group, after almost two years of work, is supposed to include cost estimates for a bypass versus widening the existing highway. Other considerations include the economic and environmental impact of the two options, and the impact on driving times.
“We don’t expect that the report will provide any specific recommendation, (but) rather present the options for the government to consider,” Warner said.
An interim report from the transportation study group said last year that crash rates along the current highway are not above provincial averages. But it also identified five possible bypass routes.
“We’re finding right now that the highway is adequate for the volume of traffic that’s on it,” Murray Tekano, a regional manager for the ministry, said last year.