$45 Million Westside Road Upgrade Announced

Christy Clark making the announcements in West Kelowna (Photo Credit: KelownaNow.com)

The provincial government has made two major announcements that will see major upgrades to Westside Road and a new works yard for West Kelowna.

Over the next five years an investment of $45 million will be given for the Westside Road upgrades which includes two new construction projects worth $10 million. The contract has been awarded to Emil Anderson Construction of Kelowna and will include improvements from Waterfront Farm to Blue Grouse. The announcement was made by Premier and West Kelowna MLA Christy Clark on Friday.

“When I ran in the byelection here I made a number of commitments and I remember that there were some who said I would never be able to meet these commitments and today is another step in getting closer to both of those,” said Clark. “For too long it has had a bad reputation as a very dangerous road.”

Unveiling the new signs for the Westside Road upgrades (Photo Credit: KelownaNow.com)

An 800 metre section of the road will be widened to have 3.6 metre wide lanes with paved shoulders, roadside barriers and rockfall protection.

Clark says the announcement made on Friday is just the first step in making "BCAA’s worst road" much safer.

“I’m hoping this will get us a big chunk of the way to where we need to go,” adds Clark. “$45 million over five years is about as much as you can spend in five years on that road, so we are going full board, all out and doing as many improvements as we can in the period of time that we have set out. So we will see what it looks like in five years, if there’s more needed we’ll look at that then.”

The second project to take place along Westside Road will be an 8.7 kilometre section of resurfacing between the Highway 97 junction and Skookim Mine Road, approximately 10 kilometres northwest of Vernon.

Mayor Doug Findlater announcing the new works yard (Photo Credit: KelownaNow.com)

The second announcement made by Clark will see an $8.7 million land grant for a new municipal work yard in West Kelowna. The 11.93 acres of land will be used as a public works yard at the junction of Bartley and Stevens Road. West Kelowna Mayor Doug Findlater said the new space will allow the district to move equipment into the area and away from its current location.

“We have heavy equipment working at the Mount Boucherie Arena and sometimes it stays there overnight, this equipment will be moved here instead,” said Findlater. “We will have a fire training site here eventually as well, we’ve laid claim to this land,” he adds jokingly.

Negotiations between the Province and the Westbank First Nation concluded with a successful consultation process with the Nation offering support for the grant.

The Premier with West Kelowna Council and Mayor (Photo Credit: KelownaNow.com)