 Cars zip along Westside Road near Trader's Cove. The route has long been criticized as unsafe. |
The project involves re-aligning and widening the road, adding shoulders, and installing concrete guardrails over a total distance of about two kilometres.
Work will be undertaken 18 kilometres north of the Highway 97 intersection, and a second location about eight kilometres south of Fintry provincial park.
"These projects will make a significant difference for drivers in West Kelowna," Westside-Kelowna MLA Ben Stewart said Wednesday. "The demands of a fast-growing community have taken their toll on infrastructure designed for far fewer people."
A start date for the project has not yet been set. But when it's complete next April or May, a 30-km speed restriction on two curves will be removed.
This past summer, the government spent $1.3 million on improvements on other sections of Westside Road, which runs 60 km along Okanagan Lake. That work involved pullouts for slow-moving vehicles, new pavement and additional signage.
Area residents and others who use Westside Road have long complained about what they say is its generally unsafe condition, citing problems such as narrow pavement, blind corners, crumbling pavement and lack of guardrails to prevent vehicles from plunging down steep embankments to the lake.
In an annual online poll conducted by the BC Automobile Association, Westside Road was earlier this year voted the province's worst road.
