City awards design contract for Bertram Street pedestrian overpass

Photo: City of Kelowna

Previous overpass design

The City of Kelowna is cautiously moving forward with plans to construct a pedestrian overpass over Highway 97 linking the Central Green development with downtown.

The Bertram Street overpass was a condition of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure for signing off on Central Green.

Infrastructure general manager Mac Logan tells Castanet the city has awarded the progressive-design-build contract to a team jointly led by Entuitive Consulting Engineering and Bird general contractors.

Logan says if the design and price are acceptable, the same design team will also build the overpass.

The final budget is expected to come in at between $5.5 million and $7 million.

A previous attempt to tender the project more than a year ago was shelved when bids came in at more than double the city's $5.5 million budget.

Logan says the city expects to receive a package containing design, specifications and a firm price in mid-July.

At that point he says the city will have three options, accept the package and proceed with construction, accept the design but go to tender for a better price or reject the package altogether.

If the city proceeds with the design and price from the contractors, construction could begin by the end of September with completion before the end of 2024.

The city plans to use the former Husky property at Harvey and Pandosy as a staging area for the project.

"The city’s goal is to proceed to construction and, provided that we can find a reasonable balance between the design features and cost, we will do so," Logan told Castanet in an email.

"The bridge is going to support existing and future residential development connecting those residents to the downtown and future UBCO campus straight up the future Bertram Street Active Transportation Corridor."