Kuldip Bahniwal, owner of the Golden Mile Fruit Market located on Hwy. 97 north of 202 Avenue, has said provincial plans to create a new, four-lane stretch of highway while turning the existing highway where his fruit stand is located into a separate access road will hurt his business. His concerns are shared by the owners of the Orchard Hill Estate Cidery and Fruit Market, located just down the road. Photo by Paul Everest - Click on picture for larger image
OSOYOOS TIMES-January 13, 2010
By Paul Everest – Osoyoos Times
The owners of two fruit stands located on Hwy. 97 north of Osoyoos are worried that plans to expand the highway to four lanes will hurt their businesses.
In November, the federal and provincial governments pledged $8 million towards the construction of a new, two-kilometre stretch of four-lane highway running from Graveyard Hill to Dead Man’s Lake.
A preliminary plan of the project shows that the new stretch of road would run parallel to the existing highway from just south of 202 Avenue to just south of Road 21.
The Orchard Hill Estate Cidery and Fruit Market and the Golden Mile Fruit Market both stand on the stretch of highway that would be replaced.
That section of highway would become a frontage road accessed from intersections at either Road 22 or 202 Avenue, which leads to the Willow Beach property.
Iqbal and Gian Dhaliwal, the owners of Orchard Hill, said that once the new stretch of road is completed, their business would no longer have highway access and would therefore be cut off from customers seeking fruit or cider in the summertime.
They said even with signage on the new stretch of highway, people would not notice the fruit market until they passed it and would likely not turn around to go back along the frontage road.
Iqbal said he is in favour of expanding the highway to four lanes, but added that it would be less costly to taxpayers and better for his business if two lanes were simply added to the existing highway.
He also said the design of his parking lot lets drivers exit the highway safely and, unlike most other local fruit stands, allows for large trucks, buses and RVs to pull into the property.
Kuldip Bahniwal is the owner of the Golden Mile Fruit Market just down the road.
He echoes the Dhaliwals’ concerns and said that if the intention of the planned expansion of the highway is to allow people to go faster on the road, no one will be paying attention to where turnoffs are for the fruit stands.
The Dhaliwals’ have started a petition against the current plans for the highway relocation and expansion which states that, “We the undersigned, being owners of property and locals adjacent to the proposed rebuilding of Highway 97, hereby give you notice that we strongly oppose any relocation of Highway 97 in our corridor.”
As of Jan. 7, 111 people had signed the petition.
Iqbal said he has also contacted provincial and federal leaders about his concerns.
Alex Atamanenko, federal MP for the B.C.’s Southern Interior, has weighed in on the matter after Iqbal wrote to one of his constituency offices.
In a letter to Boundary-Similkameen MLA John Slater dated Dec. 14, Atamanenko outlined some of the Dhaliwals’ concerns and asked Slater to take “some consideration that something can still be worked out, so Mr. and Mrs. Dhaliwal and other businesses in this Hwy. 97 corridor do not suffer significant loss of income from this highway construction and new design.”
In an interview on Jan. 8, Slater said the reason four new lanes of highway will be constructed instead of just expanding the existing stretch of road has to do with safety.
He argues that with the creation of the frontage road, accesses to businesses, orchards and residences on the west side of the road in that corridor would be away from the highway, so people could pull in and out of those accesses without having to worry about other motorists on the road going 80 km/h.
“Now you can slow down and pull in.”
It would also mean agriculturalists in that corridor could move their tractors along the frontage road without having to pull their slow-moving vehicles onto the highway.
While the Dhaliwals say they appreciate the need to make Hwy. 97 safer, they argue that the stretch being considered for the expansion is one of the safer parts of the highway and it would be better to focus safety concerns towards the dangerous corners at Graveyard Hill and Dead Man’s Lake.
Slater said this stretch of road was chosen for the expansion because there are no accesses to residences or orchards on the east side of the highway.
He said he negotiated to have the preliminary plan for the four-lane expansion amended to include a pull-out and rest stop on the west side of Hwy. 97 off of the 202 Avenue intersection near the gravel pit.
Combined with signage indicating fruit stands at both ends of the corridor, something Slater said he also negotiated for with the provincial Transportation Ministry, motorists can use the pull-out to get off the highway easily and make their way to the fruit stands.
He added that trees in the median between the proposed new stretch of four-lane highway and the frontage road will be removed so people passing by will see the fruit stands and they can pull off the highway at either intersection to get to them.
The original plan for the proposed expansion came up in the early 1990s, Slater said, and the ministry was ready to start work on the expansion in 2003.
Concerns arose at the time, however, that the plan would be “detrimental” to residents and business owners with property along that stretch.
Slater said he is confident that the current plan, including the pull-out and signage indicating fruit stands, will make the roadway safer and the stands will not lose any business.
Creating a new, four-lane stretch of highway will allow traffic to flow more easily along Hwy. 97 while reducing the instances of road rage that arise when drivers get caught behind slower moving vehicles on a two-lane stretch of roadway, he said.
The plan’s current design will be used once construction on the project begins, Slater added, although ministry engineers are still looking at several issues along the corridor.
When the Osoyoos Times contacted the ministry for information on what those engineering concerns are, a ministry spokeswoman said they would be addressed at an open house on the matter which will likely take place in late January or early February.
The spokeswoman also said the plan for the expansion would also be made public at the open house.
Slater said the project could be sent out for tender soon and construction could begin by the spring.
The new stretch of highway will be built along a right-of-way formerly owned by Canadian Pacific Railway and Slater said enough of the right-of-way will be left over to have a hike-and-bike trail constructed parallel to the roadway.
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