Rural road getting a $9M urban upgrade

A more urban feel to a country-style road — achieved through a $9.2 million upgrade — should curb speeding on the street, ofÀcials say. Leadfoots are notorious on a steep section of Glenrosa Road in West Kelowna, where the slope exceeds eight per cent. The addition of sidewalks, lighting, bike lanes and landscaping should help convince drivers to slow down, city councillors heard Tuesday. “The speeding concerns are based on driver habits and are compounded by the existing topography of the road section as the existing grades have several sections of an 8.5 per cent slope,” city staffer Steven Gubbels writes in a report. “The design will give the corridor a more urban feel with improved lighting and a clearly deÀned roadway through the addition of bike lanes and double-painted white lines and curbing,” Gubbels writes. “These improvements will impact driver habits by providing a narrower feel that will help lower speeds through the corridor,” Gubbels says. Neighbourhood response to the road project, as indicated through a public consultation process, has been generally favourably, but some people have wondered why there are no plans for a roundabout at the busy corner of Glenrosa Road and McIver Road. Building a roundabout would substantially add to the cost of the project, Gubbels says. However, the city is planning for a future trafÀc circle through the recent purchase of the property at the northwest corner of the intersection. The house on that property has an unusual geodesic dome design. For many years, the home was the residence of Atlanta Braley, leader of a spiritual group called the Equilibrium Philosophy Association. She died in November 2018 at age of 96, willing the property, with a value of $815,000, to the association.