$2 million upgrades for Westside Road

CHBC News, Doris Janssen : Friday, June 08, 2012 8:21 PM
The B.C. government is spending almost $2 million on Westside Road improvements this year. MLA Ben Stewart announced the work Friday morning. “The Westside Road improvement committee identified a number of problematic corners,” said Stewart. “The survey work that's been carried on the entire section of road aligns with their concerns and those are the corners. The safety issues that are going to be most pressing we're going to deal with first.” The province will pay $1.2 million for the paving contract for 5.5 km of roadway, including north of La Casa, near Parker Cove and Little Kingdom, south of Vernon. A further $750,000 will be spent on three new pullouts for slow-moving vehicles.  Crews will also straighten the curve at Dimitri Creek. “Through work that the Ministry of Transportation has done, they've identified 12 different pullout locations along this highway so that travel trailers and other slow moving vehicles can pull over safely and allow traffic so it doesn't platoon and get behind in vehicles,” said Stewart.  While some residents are calling for a complete overhaul of Westside Road north of Bear Creek Provincial Park, the province says the traffic volume doesn’t warrant a new road.  “This is a road that's been around for a long time, like a lot of roads in the province,” said Murray Tekano, district manager with the B.C. Ministry of Transportation. “We do prioritize the spending on these roads. It’s going to be a work in progress, but certainly we're trying to address the most problematic areas as soon as we can.”The work will begin in about two weeks.