Town faces 20-year wait for bypass or widening of highway

The widening of Highway 97 through Peachland or construction of a bypass is at least two decades away, town council heard this week.

“It really is 20 years down the road,” Steve Sirett, Ministry of Transportation district manager for the Okanagan Shuswap region, told councillors on Tuesday. “The existing highway will not approach capacity until 2040.”

But a variety of short- and medium-term improvements are likely for the existing corridor, including installation of traffic lights at the highway and Trepanier Road.

Those options will be presented at a meeting to be hosted this spring by the ministry. It has been more than three years since transportation officials held an open house in connection with the long-running Peachland transportation study.

“We recognize it’s been a while since we’ve been before the public,” Sirett said. “Understanding what the public feels about all the options will help us move forward.”

Information to be presented at the upcoming public meeting, for which there currently is no date, will include cost estimates for both building a bypass around the town of 5,500 people and widening the existing twolane highway to four lanes.

“How do you estimate the cost on a project that’s not going to start for 20 years?” asked Coun. Pam Cunningham.

“That’s part of the problem,” Sirett responded, adding the financial information would be of a conceptual nature and likely to change in the future.

Many people in Peachland favour a bypass, believing it would create a quieter, more pedestrian-friendly environment. But some critics say a bypass, which likely would be built mostly on Crown land, would be enormously expensive and isn’t warranted.

“It’s been three years and I know the public is very much wanting to get together and chat with the ministry,” Mayor Cindy Fortin said.

So far, in a study process that dates back five years, the ministry has identified both a preferred bypass route that mostly skirts all existing development, as well as a full suite of improvements to the existing highway, including widening it to four lanes. A government decision on whether to build a bypass or widen the existing highway is likely many years off, councillors heard.

Peachland has the only two-lane stretch of Highway 97 from south of Penticton to north of Vernon. Despite its narrower configuration, the existing highway performs reasonably well in terms of both moving traffic and safety considerations, ministry officials say.