Details on Peachland, Hwy. 97 bypass coming

Ministry representative to address town council Tuesday

More light will be shone next week on the future of the last remaining two-lane stretch of Highway 97 between Penticton and Vernon.

The Ministry of Transportation will present an update on a long-running study on whether the existing highway corridor in the town should be widened, or a new bypass built in the hills around the town.

Steve Sirett, the ministry's district manager for the Okanagan-Shuswap region, is to address Peachland council on Tuesday.

In January, Sirett told council the next update would provide some high-level cost estimates for both widening the existing highway and building a bypass.

But he also added whichever project is ultimately chosen by the ministry would likely not be undertaken for a long time.

"It really is 20 years down the road," Sirett told council in mid-January. "The existing highway will not approach capacity until 2040."

In the meantime, however, a variety of short-term an medium-term improvements to the existing corridor are possible. These include such things as the addition of more traffic lights and new turning lanes.

After Sirett's presentation to council, interested members of the public will be able to provide their input on what's planned through the Ministry of Transportation's website until early September.

Many people in Peachland (pop. 5,500) favour a bypass, believing it would create a quieter, more-pedestrian friendly town. They fear the town would come to resemble downtown Westbank, with a car-focused commercial strip in which walking is fairly unpleasant, if Peachland's portion of the highway is widened to four lanes.

But some critics say a bypass, which would likely be built mostly on Crown land, would be enormously expensive, damaging to the environment and some existing neighbourhoods, and isn't warranted.

The Peachland transportation study dates back to 2015 and the ministry hasn't held a public meeting on the project in more than three years.

The Okanagan Weekend

The Okanagan Weekend Despite crashes like this one Friday evening in Peachland, Ministry of Transportation officials say they’re won’t be a need to widen the last remaining stretch of Highway 97, or build a bypass, for 20 years.