Rail trail users face longer wait for reopening

Cold weather delays work on section of trail corridor along west shore of Kalamalka Lake

The first stretch of the Okanagan Rail Trail won’t open for public use quite as soon as planned.

Snow and cold weather have delayed work on a 17kilometre section of trail corridor along the west shore of Kalamalka Lake. In September, it was suggested the path would be opened by late November.

“It could be open by Christmas, but more likely sometime in January,” Andrew Gibbs, a City of Kelowna official overseeing the trail’s construction, said Wednesday.

Snowfall and cold temperatures over the past few weeks have delayed rock scaling, erosion mitigation and construction of the trail’s subgrade, Gibbs said.

When the work is finished, that portion of the trail will be reopened for public access. Prior to commencement of the work, the trail was already being used by walkers and cyclists, although people were cautioned they were using the rough railbed at their own risk.

Tenders are currently being solicited for construction of the trail in Kelowna, from Dilworth Drive to the airport. Its expected that work will get underway shortly, with completion anticipated in March or April.

“As long as temperatures don’t get too cold, this is the kind of work that can typically be done in the winter months,” Gibbs said.

Meanwhile, a volunteer group raising $7.8 million for construction of the trail along the 48-km-long abandoned railway between Coldstream and downtown Kelowna is promoting a “Gift-a-Metre” campaign this Christmas season.

“All donations, more than a metre or less than a metre, will help finish the trail,” says a release from the Okanagan Rail Trail Initiative.

A donation of $150 pays for one metre of trail construction, while $16 buys 10 centimetres, or four inches. People who make donations in the current campaign, either in their own name or on behalf of someone else as a present, get a certificate designed like shares in an old railway.

So far, more than $5 million has been raised.