With only 15 citizens on the record opposing it, a planned widening of Columbia Street is moving ahead.
Kamloops city council has voted to adopt a borrowing bylaw worth just under $2.1 million for the project, which will add more left-turn bays and traffic medians to the roadway and close a left-hand turn at Second Avenue.
Under the alternative-approval process — also known as a counter-petition — used when the city wants to borrow large sums, residents can oppose borrowing.
They need 10 per cent of registered electors, or at least 6,841 voters in Kamloops, to submit a formal response.
If successful, the city can cancel the project or send it to a community-wide referendum.
In this case, the counter-petition fell short by 6,826 signatures.
Kamloops voters have, however, successfully completed a counter-petition when, in the fall of 2011, a city proposal to build a parkade in the south parking lot adjacent to Riverside Park spurred action.
City council decided to abandon the parkade plan rather than go to a vote.
Coun. Donovan Cavers, who has often vote against motions relating to the widening of Columbia Street, once again questioned the timing of the project, which will take place at the same time as work on the Overlanders Bridge, arguing the city could upgrade the road in 2016 and still have roadworks complete before the new, $80-million clinical-services building and parkade at Royal Inland Hospital opens.
Public works director Jen Fretz said the city need to match up with roadside construction on the building at Columbia and Third Avenue, which will be completed this year and can’t be put off.
“Essentially the two projects need to meet at exactly the same spot,” she said. “The exact same location, the exact same elevation. It’s like putting tow pieces of a puzzle together.”
Mayor Peter Milobar said the RIH building may open before the 2016 construction season begins.
“There’s no guarantee you’d even have a construction cycle to work on before that building’s already open,” he said.
Capital projects manager Darren Crundwell said the city is looking for ways to alleviate traffic on the street once work begins by leaving the Second Avenue left-turn option open until the very end of construction.
“Hopefully, that will improve the access during construction,” he told council on Tuesday, March 10.
The project is expected to run through the summer.
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