OSOYOOS TIMES-April 7, 2010
Osoyoos Mayor Stu Wells and other local leaders are absolutely right in pushing the province to go a little further with its highway expansion plans north of town by calling on the B.C. Transportation Ministry to further develop a trail between Graveyard Hill and Dead Man’s Lake.
Last month, Wells expressed concerns about current plans for a trail that would run alongside the planned expansion.
He said it’s unacceptable that the path would only be two metres wide and that the ministry is intending to only complete the trail for one small section between 202nd Avenue and Road 22.
At the Regional District Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) board meeting on April 1, Wells and Allan Patton, director for rural Area C (Oliver) brought forth a notice of motion calling for the RDOS board to forward a letter to the ministry advising that the board is “against the removal of the KVR Rail to Trail bed and replacing it with a two metre walking path.”
Wells and Patton also want the board’s letter to “insist that the Ministry build a separate minimum six metre wide trail and bermed two metres above grade parallel to the highway.
At the April 1 meeting, Wells argued that since the ministry will have the equipment and materials necessary to complete the trail available when highway expansion gets underway, it would be easy for construction crews to fully develop the trail as well.
He also said the $8 million being spent on the highway expansion project is more than enough to cover building the trail, which could benefit local tourism in the years ahead.
The current plan for a two-metre-wide path is “not even a good insult,” he said, and Patton told the board that RDOS staff had advised him that a satisfactory width for a trail is six metres.
The bottom line is the area where the highway will be expanded is a perfect place to develop a trail for hiking, biking and other activities.
Not only is it relatively close to other popular trail networks that already exist or are under development such as the paths that run along the Okanagan River north from Osoyoos Lake or Osoyoos’s expanding trail network near the Osoyoos Desert Centre, it would also offer pedestrians the chance to get off the road along a busy stretch of highway.
Developing a trail to compliment the expansion might also help nearby small businesses such as fruit stands and wineries that could benefit from the extra foot and bike traffic exploring the area.
As Wells said, the tools, money and resources will be in place to develop the trail when the highway expansion begins.
If it’s not started now, it’s likely that years could pass before a fully realized pathway connecting the northern Osoyoos and southern Oliver areas is built.
It’s taken more than a decade to get the highway expansion underway.
Let’s not wait another decade to develop a valuable amenity that will benefit the entire area.
