City waiting on federal cash

By Jeremy Deutsch - Kamloops This Week - April 30, 2008

When it’s complete, the pedestrian/bike crossing at the Valleyview interchange (where highways 1 and 5 meet) will give residents a safe route to downtown or the North Shore. But the city is waiting on some cash from Ottawa before it begins construction on the $3.3-million project. The city has $1.4 million put aside for the project, but is counting on federal funding through the municipal gas-tax agreement to get the pedestrian improvements finished. Kamloops is hoping a grant announcement is made sometime during the summer or early fall, which would peg construction to begin at the end of the year or in early 2009.The plan is for an at-grade crossing with a separated bike and pedestrian walkway three metres wide through the Valleyview interchange, similar to walkways on the Overlanders Bridge. The plan also calls for the eventual construction of a bike overpass across the Canadian Pacific railroad tracks where Battle and Columbia streets separate.
However, warned David Trawin, the city’s director of development and engineering services, if Kamloops doesn’t get federal funding, it may have to scrap the bike overpass. “If we don’t get the grant money, we’ll have to scale back the project,” he said. The city had looked at 15 diverse options for a pedestrian route through the interchange. “We’re trying to build something more people will use, taking in account the cost,” Trawin said.The city also met with CP Rail and Ministry of Transportation officials to show them the design and get input.Kamloops officials expect to hear back from them in May.
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Don Quixote Note:

Kamloops is waiting to hear from the Feds and Province whether they will get their grant Money before proceeding. This is the same pot of money that Vernon applied for a grant in the amount of $$631,568 in Jan 24/07 under the MRIF program. The status of Vernon's grant on the 2008 Grants Report is listed in the Status column as Grant unlikely- project complete. Although it appears that Council might have foregone the Grant by completing the project before an announcement, the public was assured by council questions and the staff response that in point of fact the application had been denied prior to the May 14 decision to proceed with the over budgeted Middleton Way. I trust that at the Dark Side meetings that discussed Middleton (as there was a land acquisition, some discussions would be in-camera) that Council were informed about this application denial so they made their decision for this costly project with all the facts.

I'm sure that all these differences and corrections will be reflected in an updated quarterly Grants Report.