Ron Seymour Sunday, January 18, 2009 Penticton Herald
A fatal crash along a narrow, winding stretch of Highway 97 in Peachland has given new urgency to calls for a bypass around the town. The proposed bypass would extend 17 kilometres over mostly Crown-owned land, running from Greata Ranch to the Okanagan Connector. “It would be a safer, better option that wouldn‘t damage the potential of Peachland, like simply widening the existing highway would,” John Abernethy of the Peachland Highway Task Force said Saturday. The higher-elevation route would take through traffic away from an existing two-lane stretch of Highway 97 at the north end of Peachland. The road has been the scene of many crashes over the years, including one on Friday night that killed a woman. Police say two people in a Ford van were headed south when the vehicle went off the road and struck a rock face on the west side of the highway. “The Jaws of Life were used to remove the female passenger from the vehicle, which had extensive damage to the passenger side,” said RCMP Const. John Brown. Both occupants were taken to Kelowna General Hospital, where the woman died. The man remained in serious condition Saturday. “That‘s a dangerous section where the accident happened,” said Peachland Mayor Keith Fielding. “It‘s steep, winding and unlit, and you‘ve got the rock face on one side and a sharp drop-off on the other.”
When already-announced projects are complete, Highway 97 will be four lanes all the way from Penticton to north of Vernon, except for the stretch through Peachland. In 2007, five people were killed in highway accidents in Peachland, representing one-quarter of all fatalities along the Highway 97 corridor, according to RCMP statistics. The town‘s highway task force was created in 2005 to examine the feasibility of building a bypass, rather than simply four-laning the existing highway. A pro-bypass meeting last year drew 500 people, or 10 per cent of Peachland‘s total population. “A bypass absolutely isn‘t a pipe dream,” Abernethy said, referring to skepticism that surrounds the proposal in some quarters. “It‘s entirely possible and, in fact, it would be the best option all around.” The Ministry of Transportation has previously estimated the cost of a bypass and required interchanges at close to $200 million, versus $120 million for four-laning the existing road. However, Abernethy and other task force members say cost should not be the only consideration. Construction of the bypass would not require any infilling of Okanagan Lake, as might be required with a widening project, they say. Nor would it involve the large-scale blasting away of steep hillsides, as is being done with the current Highway 97 widening project north of Summerland. “Most of the bypass would be on Crown land, so there wouldn‘t be as much cost for property acquisition,” Abernethy said. Anticipated federal and provincial government spending on infrastructure projects means the time for serious consideration of the bypass has never been better, he said.
Town council has not yet formally adopted a position favouring a bypass or widening of the existing highway, the mayor noted, adding some merchants are concerned about the possible loss of business if a new road is built. Members of the task force will make another presentation to council next month urging members to press the government for a bypass.
No comments:
Post a Comment