West Kelowna

Work has begun on a series of safety improvements to Westside Road.

Photo: Contributed - Daniel Hayduk

The improvements include 5.5km of paving as well as construction of three new vehicle pullouts.

Okanagan Aggregates was awarded a $1.2M contract for the paving work which will include three key stretches of Westside Road:

• Near La Casa: starting 400m north of Barcelona Road and continuing north for 1 km.
• Near Parker Cove: starting 400m south of Whiteman Creek Bridge and continuing north for 1.5 km.
• Near Little Kingdom: starting 700m south of Six Mile Road and continuing north for 2.9 km. 

The three new pullouts are on top of three added a year ago. These include:

• 1.5 km north of Bear Lake Forest Service Road near Pine Point, southbound.
• 7.4 km north of Bear Lake Forest Service Road; approx. 400m north of Wilson Landing Fire Hall, northbound.
• 11 km north of Bear Lake Forest Service Road at Dimitri Creek; approx. 5 km north of Wilson Landing. The pullout is southbound, and the project includes straightening the curve to improve safety.

"There are many year-round residents who live along Westside Road and, in the summer, the traffic increases as tourists take advantage of the many resorts, Bear Creek Provincial Park and Fintry Provincial Park," says Westside-Kelowna MLA Ben Stewart.

"This work will address safety concerns by improving the road condition in three key areas. The vehicle pull-outs will give recreational vehicles the chance to move over so traffic doesn't back up."

Road signs will also be upgraded and additional corner markers and reflective road delineators added between Bear Creek Road and Highway 97 at O'Keefe Ranch.

Recently, Westside Road was named the worst road in the province in a survey conducted by the BC Automobile Association.