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Kelowna's Bridge to Where?
Monument to the car already looks out of date to some.
Festivities at Sunday's bridge opening. Photo Karma Lacoff.
Kelowna is a place built around the automobile.
The city's main drag, Harvey Avenue, is really just a section of Highway 97 with strip malls, parking lots and hotels crammed along either side.
Yet even as a new bridge opened here to much fanfare, the city's mayor mused that "building new roads" is not the "answer" to creating a sustainable future for Kelowna. She seemed to reflect a growing realization that the car can't reign supreme for long in a region that prides itself on quality of life amidst natural splendour.
Set in a paradisiacal valley next to awe-inspiring Okanagan Lake, Kelowna is experiencing rapid population growth. It has gone from 9,000 people 50 years ago to more than 110,000 today. When the surrounding communities are taken into account, the Kelowna area has over 170,000 people living in it.
Development here has so far been a sprawling affair, accompanied by a never ending need to accommodate higher and higher traffic volumes in and out of the valley.
Bridging the past
Probably the most significant infrastructure project for stimulating the region's growth was the building of Okanagan Lake Bridge. It was opened in regal fashion by Princess Margaret and Premier W.A.C. Bennett during B.C.'s centennial celebrations on July 19, 1958. One of only three floating concrete bridges in the world, the engineering marvel connected Kelowna to the west side of the lake by road. Before the bridge, the crossing was serviced by ferries.
As current Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon put it, "The bridge really symbolized the growth of the Okanagan and Kelowna in particular." But in recent years, the bridge has come to be more a symbol of frustration as legendary traffic jams became routine. As successive governments promised to address the bottleneck without taking action, the bridge also became a symbol of the region's neglect by government.
But no more. In another grand celebration, Premier Gordon Campbell opened the bridge's state-of-the-art replacement on Sunday. The new bridge is named after former Socred premier William R. (Bill) Bennett, who was responsible for the Coquihalla Highway, another key transportation project in the area, and who is also W.A.C's son. The Bennett dynasty is the closest thing the Okanagan has to local royalty.
Sunday's $140,000 party with Bill Bennett as the guest of honour was designed to deliver maximum propaganda benefits to the Campbell government. Much was made of the fact the new bridge opened almost exactly 50 years after the first one, this time with the province celebrating its 150th anniversary.
Thousands packed into City Park to give Bill Bennett, now 76 years old, a hero's reception and to watch Falcon and Campbell bask in the glory of a major infrastructure project coming in on budget and 108 days ahead of schedule.
Campbell was quick to point to the bridge as vindication of his government's strategy of using public-private partnerships to build public projects
"There were people that said, 'why would we do a public-private partnership?' You save money and you get a bridge 108 days early. That's why you do public-private-partnerships," he declared from the stage.
Private concerns
Despite the premier's glee, there are important tests of the public-private partnership yet to come. The contractor, SNC-Lavalin, doesn't start getting its payments of about $20 million a year until after the bridge is open, so it had a financial incentive to wrap-up construction early. But it is also responsible for maintaining the bridge for the next 27 years as it collects those payments, so it still has lots of work to do.
Local media and members of the public have expressed concern about the bulge at the western end of the bridge. It was put in to allow sailboats with large masts to pass unimpeded from one side of the bridge to the other (the old bridge had a lift-span that would back up traffic while boats passed underneath). But the grade of the bulge's slopes have some people worrying about ice and snow in the winter causing accidents, despite assurances from both the company and the government.
And we'll have to wait and see what condition the bridge is in when its ownership transfers back to the government at the end of the contract.
The new bridge comes at a critical time in Kelowna's history. Environmental awareness and high gas prices have caused some to question the wisdom of pegging future development to increased flows of cars and trucks.
Long before plans for a replacement bridge were drawn up there was talk of building a second corridor through the central Okanagan, including a second crossing of the lake. Bennett himself mused about the need to identify where the corridor could go before he left office in 1986.
Bugging government about a second crossing has become a favourite hobby of local politicians and business leaders. Recent interviews of Falcon by Kelowna journalists inevitably included a question along the lines of, "now that this bridge is done, what about a second crossing?"
When Bennett's time to speak came on Sunday, he made sure to use the platform given to him.
"I would say to the premier, it's just about time to look at more roads for this area so we can continue to grow," he said. "And to start working on the next bridge." The remarks drew the biggest applause of the day.
High-rise Kelowna?
On Sunday, both Campbell and Falcon danced around questions from reporters about a second crossing by saying they just wanted to celebrate the accomplishment of opening the new bridge. But in a past interview, Falcon was clear his government has limited interest in another crossing.
"Looking out 10, 20 years, I think the one biggest shift that I think the area should be aware of is we do face some challenges in term of global warming and climate change," he said, adding the province wants to see more of an emphasis in the future on cycling and other transit options.
Falcon also said the Okanagan has to look at how it develops. "We think we need to see a change in the urban form. We need to see more density, we need to see more opportunities for more high-rises because that is much friendlier in terms of environmental and greenhouse gas output," he said. "And it makes it easier to service from a transit point of view. That I think is something that is going to be a pretty significant shift as we go forward." The shift towards taller buildings has already started. Kelowna has traditionally avoided allowing high rises but city council is on the verge of voting on a controversial redevelopment proposal which would see 30-story high-rises go up downtown by the lake. That's more than twice the maximum height contemplated in the city's downtown plan but appears to have the support of enough councillors to get the green light. Critics worry about "Vancouverization."
In her speech during the ceremonies, Kelowna Mayor Sharon Shepherd noted that when the first bridge opened in 1958, gas cost 5 cents a litre but on this day it was going for $1.36.
Second crossing, second thoughts
Shepherd has long advocated for a second crossing. She even lobbied for it to be built before the old bridge was replaced. But recently she has started to have second thoughts.
"We really do have to think differently," she said in an interview at the top of the new bridge, where she and other politicians were handing out commemorative coins to the throngs who took the opportunity to walk on the bridge deck before it opened to cars.
"Building more roads is not necessarily an answer. We are improving our infrastructure for buses and we have to get people out of their cars and so you know what, that means changing our communities," said Shepherd.
The city is about to embark on a public consultation process as it revises its official community plan and comes up with a vision of what Kelowna should look like in 2030.
"I think that we've all thought that we have to keep planning for roads and all of this," commented the mayor. "So when you sit here and think what will 20 years be like, it may not be having more roads here where people are going to be in their automobiles."
It's just hard to imagine what that Kelowna would look like.
Related Tyee stories:
- Attack of the Gravel Pits
Okanagan paradise becoming 'a crater on the moon.' - Drying up the Okanagan
Thirsty region is 'canary in coal mine' for BC and water. - Global Warming's Threat to BC: Seeking Solutions
Floods and droughts on the radar. Can we adapt?
![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
- BC snuffs out AirCare test program
- AFN national chief Shawn Atleo to launch re-election bid
- Citizens group releases video to fight undead Bill C-30
- Conservative MP says he might vote against budget, then 'clarifies' his position
- Genetically modified plants won't take root with councillors in Richmond, BC
- Hundreds at Vancouver rally to support Quebec students
- Could Fort Mac become an eco-tourist hotspot?
- Rick Hansen's Man in Motion anniversary tour concludes in Vancouver
- The Gem of Canadian Science that Harper Killed
- Who Mowed Down the Premier?
- Canada's Economy, Deconstructed (by a 12 year-old)
- Death in Remand: a Tyee Inquiry
- Now Is the Time to Talk up Big Ideas
- Bill C-38: the Environmental Destruction Act
- 'A Gut Feeling'
- Sexism Tinges Criticism of Teachers' Job Action
- Bias in BC's Pesticide Decision? Follow the Bouncing Verbs
- Why Blackberry's Embrace of HTML5 Is Good Karma
- The Gem of Canadian Science that Harper Killed
- Sexism Tinges Criticism of Teachers' Job Action
- Now Is the Time to Talk up Big Ideas
- The Ethics of Addiction Studies
- Bill C-38: the Environmental Destruction Act
- Alberta Fills Pipes with Corrosive Denial
- Does BC Stand for Ban Clotheslines?
- BC biotech company seeks approval for GM apple
- Bias in BC's Pesticide Decision? Follow the Bouncing Verbs
- What's Behind BC's Doors?
- Why Blackberry's Embrace of HTML5 Is Good Karma
- Bias in BC's Pesticide Decision? Follow the Bouncing Verbs
- Death in Remand: A Jail Crammed with Risk
- The Ethics of Addiction Studies
- What's Behind BC's Doors?
- The Gem of Canadian Science that Harper Killed
- Sexism Tinges Criticism of Teachers' Job Action
- Should You Run from that Medical Test?
- 'The Dictator'
- Death in Remand: Stacked Deck
- Double lung recipient dances on Ellen show
- ISS astronauts grab DragonX space capsule by the tail with Canada Arm
- Metro Vancouver gas prices peak at record levels
- Ottawa posts $9-billion deficit in March despite pledge to avoid spending spree
- BC phases out AirCare to focus on fighting bigger vehicle emissions
- Tsunami senors to be dropped into deep sea off of Vancouver Island
- Student groups file court challenge against Quebec protest law
- ...while on the streets, pirates and ninjas put aside mutual animosity to join student protests
26
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City Person
4 years ago
Infrastructure
The same company is building the Canada Line which is also under budget and ahead of schedule.
The old bridge was just that, old. It had outlived its lifespan. It was time to replace it.
That said, Kelowna really needs to examine how it wants to develop because what is there ain't good.
Tired of the Li...
4 years ago
Kelowna's Bridge to Where?
I have worked in the Road building Industry for many years, even I can understand we should stop building more Roads. Not only are many of the car trips people take not needed and a waste of energy but they also contribute significantly to the CO2 problem.
We must put all our road building efforts and more into developing, promoting and useing alternate means of Transportation.
The Carbon Tax is not the way to reduce the use of Cars for personal use, all it does is allow the rich to continue wasting resources as before and the poor well, who cares what they do - they don not even vote for Campbell.
Kelowna's bridge is a bridge to the archaic past.
Luke Skywalker
4 years ago
Kelowna's New Crossing...
Since Hwy 97 is the primary highway in the Okanagan Valley and functions as a route for through traffic, commuter traffic, goods/services traffic, tourist traffic etc., the construction of the new crossing with a 5-lane cross-section is years overdue.
Particularly for the weekday and the summer tourist rubber tire crowd. Too many back-ups.
Harvey Ave. (Hwy 97) through Kelowna is also non-functional in terms of the mix of through traffic, local traffic, etc. and the future Central Okanagan Corridor in Kelowna's northside will eventually see a freeway, transit, and biking options built to alleviate the congestion along Harvey Ave.
http://www.kelowna.ca/CityPage/Docs/PDFs//Transportation%20Division/COB%20Phase%20I%20&%20II/COMC%20-%20May%202%20Open%20House%20displays.pdf
And the expressway/freeway will also have a provision to connect with the contemplated future second crossing. As for the 2nd crossing... at least another 30 - 40 years out.
freebear
4 years ago
Bridge to Nowhere!
According to Falcon, with climate change and so on, Kelowna will have to rethink its urban form!
Before spending taxpayer dollars on 'Gateway' perhaps Falcon should re-examine!
I recall a cartoon that had a highway bridge overpass that led to nothing, just a pile of cars! The best kind of bridge.
Do peole really think when they create their visions for their communities that we will still be unsustainably in love with the automobile?
Why do we continue to design and build communities that 'we' all want to flee from on the weekend?!!!!!
Then again, I suppose its all about being more sustainable!!!!! (sarcasm for your enquiring minds)
Yammer
4 years ago
We're on a road to...everywhere
From ox-driven cart to buggy to Prius, the small personal vehicle concept has endured because it's so very useful.
Mass transit is great, but the demand for personal vehicles is always going to be there.
Maybe there is a bit of a role for gov't, but there also has to be demand for it.
In surveys, Canadians are "green" in theory, and of course there is the constant guilt element about how only evil people drive.
I suspect that in reality, there is very little demand to want to ride stinky, loud buses or slow, expensive, hideous electric cars.
Increase the demand, capitalist pigs!
1. Give us quiet, clean, not-disgustingly hot and stinky buses that come promptly!
2. Give us the option of groovy, fun electric vehicles! Like these babies:
http://www.teslamotors.com/
http://www.vectrix.com/portal/
Frank
4 years ago
Geez
Why didn't they just build Kelowna on the other side of the lake? Would have made things a lot cheaper. But that would have required that "vision" thing I guess.
And like Yammer, I agree that the problem with public transit is that its hard to sell the idea of taking a ride with a bunch of strangers that will probably dislike you as soon as they see you.
notamused
4 years ago
It's not a toll
It's not a toll bridge.
WHOOPS, THAT WAS AN EDITING MISTAKE (NOT THE WRITER'S) AND THANKS FOR CATCHING IT.
TYEE EDITOR
Dungeness_Crab
4 years ago
Not atoll
Isthmus?
;)
City Person
4 years ago
Correct
It will be practically impossible to legislate away the private car. People have loved individual transportation since the don of time. What we can do is use taxation to direct people to dive more cars and drive more efficiently.
Go look at the ECO auto website and then look around the streets and see how many of said models you see on the roads. They are popping up like mushrooms. People's behaviours are in fact changing in response to legislation. They are actually buying small cars with manual transmissions!Go to your local Honda dealer and try to get a manual transmission Fit or Civic right now. It is even harder to get a manual Corolla.
Why? Well, there is a $1000 federal rebate and no PST.
See? It works.
ME2
4 years ago
redesigning the future.
Frank sez :
"Why didn't they just build Kelowna on the other side of the lake?"
And then they could plan a people-friendly rather than car-friendly city with public transit and bike lanes as a priority.
Frank
4 years ago
Social engineering
See? It works.
So its not because gas is $1.35 a litre? Or because of the rise of the Cdn dollar and all the dealer incentives?
The report had some good news for North American manufacturers with 53,049 of the passenger cars being sold being North American-built, a surge of 21.9 per cent from December. Statistics Canada said this increase more than compensated for the cumulative declines of the previous three months and was the biggest single monthly rise of North American-built passenger-car sales since January 1991.
There was a 6.7 per cent, or 27,706-unit, rise in sales for overseas-built passenger cars. This built on the 10.1 per cent rise in December.
Sales of new trucks edged up 0.5 per cent in January with 72,476 units sold.
http://autos.canada.com/news/story.html?id=079f5b85-fed9-478c-b3d3-a5f1d853494d
Skookum1
4 years ago
why did the chicken cross the lake?
Where is the proposed second bridge? Are they just talking about a doubled "kelowna Narrows" - where else on Okanagan Lake is it possible to bridge at all? And why is it of all the Interior towns that need bridges, Kelowna would get two while other long-overdue bridges are shelved for another couple of decades (thereby holding back "growth").
And the reason why they don't build Kelowna on the west side of the lake is because of the Westbank Indian Reserve. Not that the Westbank First Nation isn't into profiting from urbanization; but the big money types that want to Vancouverize a mew metropolitan area would obvoiusly get better treatment in locations where only provincial and municipal/RD politicians have to be dealt with.....
G West
3 years ago
By the way City Person
On the gas conversion question - from an earlier comment - I don't think there's any doubt that per unit costs would be sub 3G as part of a concerted program - a hell of a lot cheaper than the up charge for a Hybrid and much more appropriate for work trucks...
On the train issue - please read again what I wrote. The abandonment of rail lines in the Prairie Provinces has been a complete disaster - both for commerce and community life.
We do have options - the Campbell/Taylor gas tax isn't one though - it's a farce.
I welcome respectful comments to my posts at Tyee
G West
alda
3 years ago
Reality will force change upon all deniers
Despite predicted recessionary pull backs in oil, when the global energy situation finally pushes oil up to $200 to $500 a fill (and perhaps even $1000, as Matthew Simons says is not unimagineable) this decade, the good citizens of Kelowna will be booing Bennett, not applauding his inane, business as usual, "fill-er-up, Joe" comments.
Good for Sharon Shepherd, though. She "seems" to be getting the Peak Oil message ...give the head-in-the-sand public a good kick in the behind at the gas pumps in the coming years, and so will they.
Those same citizens will be clammering at their politicians, demanding electric trollies, enhanced bike paths, legislation that will allow golf carts and air compressed cars like the ZEN (Quebec car) on the streets of Kelowna. Too bad Nelson doesn't have the same kind of tax base to expand its rail lines for its tourist trolley; otherwise it'd have a great head start compared to most other B.C. towns.
City Person
3 years ago
Frank...
Frank, the sales rise of fuel efficient vehicles is due to all the factors you quote in your post.
However, if you look carefully, you will find the models that qualify for the eco rebates have seen the largest percentage increases. That 21.9% rise also includes two Canadian models that qualify for the eco rebates, the Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic manuals. The Civic was the top selling car in Canada in 2007, and the Corolla was number three.
Way to go Canada!
Glen Murtz
3 years ago
Gateways to Stupidity
in other news...
http://www.reportonbusiness.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080527.wtrade28/BNStory/Business/home
Glen Murtz
3 years ago
Nice bridge - wheres the cars
A more complete picture would have a car careening wildly through the crowd, complete with an enraged, cellphone using driver mowing through pedestrians.. that's life in the city for people who walk.
And hey - Kelowna must be a real happening place when that many people show up to stare at a pile of asphalt.
Finally - people could be given a yearly tax credit for signing away their "right" to drive - bet that'd change some habits too..
Grumpy
3 years ago
Some odd and sods.
.
City person, RAV/Canada line is over $1 billion over its original budget. What we have is not a P-3, but a pay-as-you-go type contract, that is continuously adjusted to hide thew fact of the $1 billion overrun. That's why SERCO and the international banks bailed and Campbell had to raid the public service pension plan to give the impression of a P-3. If SNC Lavalin walks away from RAV during any part of the phony P-3, it is BC taxpayers that will have to pick up the tab. SNC Lavalin undertook no risk!
That being said, there is a underused rail line running North of Kelowna through the airport, Vernon and North. It would not take much to operate Diesel LRT on this route and make it a cheap to operate rail corridor.
G West
3 years ago
City Person
I think if you look at Canadian new car sales figures you'll find that (with the possible exception of Hummers and a few big SUVs that sales have been setting all time records.
Not surprising since the rise of the Canadian $ has lowered the cost of any vehicle to something less than about 2002/03 prices.
Why not look at what's happened to car purchase numbers south of the border where there's been no similar real cost reduction?
I welcome respectful comments to my posts at Tyee.
G West
Luke Skywalker
3 years ago
Skookum1
As I stated in my previous post that'll be another 30 to 40 years out.
If ya look at the link in my earlier thread, you will see that any future crossing will be farther north of the current crossing.
More particularly, where the old ferry dock was on the westside and the sawmill site site situate on the east side at the base of Knox Mountain.
Think Patullo Bridge v. Port Mann Bridge in "modern" terms and connections.
I assume you are referring to the Needles Bridge way out in the boonies and currently accessed by a ferry on Arrow Lakes?
http://www.b-t.com/projects/needles.htm
Sheesh, the Okanagan Lake Bridge is the most congested outside the Lower Mainland!
doggone
3 years ago
Just bought a '91 chev 4x4 V8
Could be the last big truck sold. Dealers are now not accepting these big pickups and SUVs for trade in: the dealer can not sell the monsters (there are too many monsters).
I paid 3000 bucks for a (more or less) working truck. My option was to pay about 15,000 bucks for a newer wreck.
The option (the newer,more expensive wreck) will very likely be unsalable very soon. If I blew this I loose less than 3000 because I intend to drive it for a while
If I bought a newer wreck I could stand to loose the major value thereof.
So I am looking for a brand new Dodge Ram Deisle: You paid 75,000 and I'm offering 1500 cash I require a good sterio, 4x4, no power windows-
I grew up in the Okanagan. I know the bridges and Kelowna is a disaster.
Skookum1
3 years ago
chickens and eggs
www.b-t.com/projects/needles.htm
Sheesh, the Okanagan Lake Bridge is the most congested outside the Lower Mainland!
Yes, and the reason it's so congested is because it got built at all. It's a stock conundrum in "infrastructure theory" - "if you build it, they will not only come but there will be a traffic jam". There's no way highways "improve" traffic - they inherently CREATE it. Of course, when the current bridge was built, Bill Bennett hadn't yet hatched the Coquihalla scheme which jacked up Kelowna's growth it its current bigbox/trafficjma nightmare; combine that with Coquihalla-enhanced/induced growth on the lake's west shore and "the mess was in the making".
This is one of those stories about one part of the infrastructure not talking to the other, and nobody doing any thinking whiel building things for what they figured out they needed ten years previously. Wherever the Coquihalla concept landed in the Interior after traversing the plateau, the whole IDEA was to accelerate growth. So, if that was the case, why didn't somebody plan for it??. You don't just dead-end an expressway at a two-lane bridge, for pity's sake....but somebody did (and that very "somebody" was cutting the ribbon the other day).
As for other locations, Needles is the obvious one and Balfour-Kootenay Bay seems the most improbably difficult one. But as with the chicken-and-egg formula relating to highways and bridges at Kelowna, one reason a lot of places are considered "out in the boonies" is because of transportation issues like bridges. Not that Nakusp or New Denver are suddenly going to bwcome major centres if Highway 6 didn't have that ferry, but the areas accessed implicity would have increased economic advantages. It's not about who has more moeny/people - the Cheslatta Lake ferry for instancfe, or the Big Bar Ferry, if replaced by actual bridges, would change the local economy/society big-time. Focussing spending on only areas where popluation/traffic already are is only entrenching it in those locations.
I'll be back about trains.
Frank
3 years ago
Glen Murtz
Good link, I referenced the same thing yesterday to a few friends. Decades of globalization is being wiped out.
Frank
3 years ago
City Person
I think the number of sales in that category would have been pretty much the same the same regardless. Where a rebate helps is if one car in that category qualifies for the rebate and the other doesn't. I know Honda was complaining quite loudly that their extra safety features were being ignored and essentially cost them sales because their L/100km was 0.1 too high.
RickW
3 years ago
Nice Bridge!
But.....the same old congested roads on either side of it. Where's the bypass around Kelowna?
RickW
3 years ago
Is Kelowna a Copycat?
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/22/alaska.bridge.ap/