A local resident is calling on the Town of Oliver to consider establishing another bridge to connect the east and west side in case of an emergency.
Bill Leverett, who lives in the Tuc-el-Nuit area, said people on the east side of the river are vulnerable because Fairview Road bridge is the only one connecting the two areas. If the bridge is blocked by a serious incident, ambulance, police and fire personnel cannot quickly access the east side if a medical or traffic emergency occurs, Leverett said.
“All of or emergency services are on the west side, and we have one small bridge . . . it’s a concern to everyone.”
Leverett said the hospital, McKinney Place, Sunnybank Centre, and the Indian reserve would be cut off to emergency responders if a crisis occurred on the bridge.
“If we wait until we have an accident there (it’s too late) . . . isn’t it time we looked at it?”
He shuddered to think what would happen if somebody had a heart attack and needed to get to the hospital quick, but the bridge was out of service.
Leverett said the Town could build a bailey bridge as an alternate connector in emergency situations. In any event, the Town will need to build another river crossing to address population growth.
Mayor Ron Hovanes said council has spoken of the need for a second bridge many times.
“In fact, there are plans for a future bridge where McKinney Road and Veterans Avenue meet at the river (but it would be a huge cost to the town).”
Hovanes said the streets on the east side of the river have all been designed to accommodate a future bridge.
The present council had a future bridge as a discussion item at its last priority session.
“With all of the new construction at the NK’Mip golf course and the future corrections facility, council has agreed that we need to have some preliminary discussion on where we wish to proceed on this.”
Town foreman Dave Janzen said there are literally ways around an emergency on the bridge.
The options are up Road 9 onto Black Sage Road and back towards town, or take Highway 97 north to Vincor and come in on Tucelnuit Drive.
Janzen said another route is the river dike off Thorp Road onto Black Sage Road.