West Kelowna traffic grows without answers

West Kelowna residents are continuing to speak up about the increased traffic volume on the west side, as it's leading to longer commute times.

Residents have noticed a gradual change over the last few years.

With just one bridge allowing traffic into downtown Kelowna, and more people moving to Kelowna, the bottle-necking around the bridge is getting worse, according to Catherine Pynappels.

She's a resident on the west side and what used to be a quick jaunt across the pond, has become a larger event for her family.

"The last few weeks, the traffic volume from like 8 a.m. in the morning to about 9:30 a.m. is about an hour commute and should take about 15 minutes on a normal day," said Pynappels.

She also said that even with traffic being diverted to Lakeview Heights, it hasn't seemed to help the flow on HWY 97. Traffic is still backed up, but then bottle necks at the bridge, as drivers merge off Campbell Road onto HWY 97.

What used to be a 15-minute commute, has grown to an hour. Leaving earlier doesn't seem to help either, she said.

"There's a lot of people from West Kelowna that don't understand why this is happening. Everybody says, 'It's volume, it's volume.'"

"I'm pretty sure that the infrastructure of the bridge that they built - it no longer can handle this type of volume coming into Kelowna for work."

KelownaNow also reached out to SNC Lavalin, the contracted engineering company who built the current bridge, to ask about the amount of volume the bridge could handle. KelownaNow also inquired about what measures the engineering company would take to ensure future bridges were built to keep up with population growth. However SNC Lavalin referred our questions back to the province, who said they were unable to answer.

"Nobody knows what's going on and why the highway can't handle the volume," said Pynappels.

While there is talk of a second crossing, the plans have yet to be determined.

In the meantime, here's what we know about the William R. Bennett Bridge:

Initially it was called the Okanagan Lake Bridge and was built in 1958 and then was replaced in 2008.

The name change occurred in 2005. In 2003, the Ministry of Transportation estimated the bridge would cost $100 million and an additional $20 million for two interchange upgrades on the west side of the lake.

However, the estimation increased in 2005 to $144 million and the Ministry said it was due to the cost of materials and labour.

SNC Lavalin has a 30-year concession agreement with the Province of British Columbia and expects to be paid a total of $179 million to design, build, finance, operate, maintain and rehabilitate the bridge.

The five-lane bridge is the only route within 110 kilometres between both shores for commuters and emergency vehicles.

This means the bridge has to be available at all times.

It was built to hold 50,000 vehicles daily.

The bridge was built with the use of 20 anchor and cable components from the original bridge.

Maintenance on the bridge involves seasonal inspections, as well as managing traffic and asking regular bridge users to rate their satisfaction of the bridge twice a year.

The province had estimated that the bridge would reach full capacity by 2024.

If you have ideas or frustrations you would like to share, send to News@KelownaNow.com.