Peachland bypass goes to public this week

Posted: Sunday, January 10, 2016 4:18 pm RON SEYMOUR Special to the Herald
Advocates for a highway bypass around Peachland say the proposed new route would also be a significant travel benefit to communities south of the town. “We’ve kind of dubbed the bypass the South Okanagan Connector,” Peter Warner, president of the Highway 97 Task Force Society, said Sunday. “The bypass would obviously make Peachland a quieter and more pedestrian-friendly place, but it would also reduce the travel time for people in Penticton and Summerland who drive to the Coast,” Warner said. After years of lukewarm official response to calls for a bypass, the Ministry of Transportation agreed just before Christmas to formally study the idea. The first public meeting in what’s expected to be a two-year process will take place 7-9 p.m. Wednesday at Peachland’s community centre. “We’re so optimistic and very pleased the government is willing to do this study,” Warner said. Transportation Minister Todd Stone says the study of the feasibility of the bypass will involve public consultation, and will refer to traffic counts, growth projections, land-use priorities, and impacts on business and tourism. “The study will look into the options that will meet the transportation needs of Peachland including developing an alternate route or improving the existing highway,” Stone said in mid-December. The stretch of Highway 97 through Peachland is the only two-lane portion between south of Penticton and north of Vernon. More than 800 Peachlanders are members of the group promoting a bypass, making it the largest civic organization in the town of 5,200 people. Society members, who include retired engineers and road builders, say a viable bypass route would run from Greata Ranch Estate Winery south of town to the Okanagan Connector, about six kilometres west of the existing Highway 97-97 C interchange. Most the bypass route, they say, would be on Crown land, limiting the need to buy private property. A rough construction estimate for the 20-kilometre bypass, prepared a few years ago, was $160 million. By comparison, widening the existing 17-kilometre two-lane highway to four lanes was estimated to cost $130 million. Just when traffic counts would warrant either widening the existing route or building a bypass is, at present, an open question. “Some of our members think either option won’t be necessary for a few more years, and others think a bypass should already exist,” Warren says. “What we as a group are saying is that, whenever the decision is made, we hope the government follows the trend throughout the western world and builds a bypass, allowing Peachland to flourish on its own without having a four-lane highway, and six lanes at intersections, running right through the town.”