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Long-awaited sidewalk coming to Peachland’s Trepanier Bench Road

The district is applying for a B.C.-Canada grant to fund the project
23919071_web1_Sidewalk-Stock-McLachlanP-BlackPressFILE_1
A sidewalk. (Phil McLachlan - Capital News)

Residents of Peachland will finally be able to safely walk along Highway 97.

The District of Peachland has decided to apply for a grant that will see a sidewalk go up from Highway 97 to Clarence Road, along Trepanier Bench Road, starting from where the highway and Trepanier intersect.

The plans and design for the sidewalk along that corridor were completed in 2020 but the district’s CAO Joe Mitchell said there weren’t enough funds to complete it. In order to get a move on the project, the district voted on Jan. 12 to apply for the COVID-19 Resilience Infrastructure Stream Grant, a program designed by the federal and provincial governments to help communities build and recover from the pandemic.

District council had to decide between two options: building a sidewalk from the highway up to Coldham Road or extending the sidewalk up to Clarence Road.

The first choice would mean a sidewalk width of 1.8 metres, retaining walls due to the slope and highly mobile soil in the area, as well as sidewalk drainage for a total of $2.8 million.

The second option, which would go up to Clarence Road, would be 1.2 metres in width. However, going for the second option means a smaller and shorter retaining wall but would still require drainage infrastructure for an estimated total of $2.8 million as well.

Even with 0.6 metres less, Mitchell assured council the sidewalk will still be wide enough for two people to walk on and that it will accommodate a wheelchair as well.

The district’s councillors decided to go for the second option, which would see a longer sidewalk up Trepanier.

Coun. Terry Condon said despite sacrificing 0.6 metres, the longer sidewalk just makes more sense.

Coun. Keith Fielding said the longer sidewalk will address residents’ concerns about the issue.

“There has been quite a lot of discussion on (social media) recently about the desirability of sidewalks and ‘why can’t we have more?’,” he said.

“As much as it would be fabulous to have a sidewalk going all the way up Trepanier, all the way up Princeton, this is the reality facing us: it’s a very expensive proposition so grabbing onto grants when they come forward is really the only practical way for us to go.”

Council has now directed district staff to prepare an application for the grant. If the district’s application is successful and it receives the funding, the sidewalk will be ready at least by the end of 2021.

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Twila Amato
Video journalist, Black Press Okanagan
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Twila Amato

About the Author: Twila Amato

Twila was a radio reporter based in northern Vancouver Island. She won the Jack Webster Student Journalism Award while at BCIT and received a degree in ancient and modern Greek history from McGill University.
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