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Task force to examine Highway 1 bypass options for commercial vehicle traffic

Salmon Arm mayor to have group look at traffic safety, options for RV pullout/info centre.
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A highway bypass to accommodate commercial truck traffic is one of the things an appointed mayor’s task force will be looking at. (Lachlan Labere/Salmon Arm Observer)

In the top right-hand drawer of Mayor Alan Harrison’s desk is an approved plan for a Highway 1 bypass for Salmon Arm – dated 1962.

The rudimentary plan, approved by the former provincial Department of Highways, displayed on the one-page document clearly wouldn’t fly today. It does, however, illustrate how a highway bypass for commercial vehicle traffic has been talked about in and for the community for more than half a century.

“My point is it’s an idea that’s been on the books for a long, long time,” said Harrison. “It’s been talked about through my 19 years of being on council and if we keep talking about it, in 25 years from now we’re going to have 4,000 trucks coming through our town and we’ll be no closer to bypassing than we are now.

“We need to do something – we can’t just keep talking about it.”

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The first step for Harrison is to establish a mayor’s task force that will study the matter and come up with recommendations for council.

“This is a 25-year plan; this is not something that’s going to happen in the next four years…,” said Harrison. “If in 25 years what we do today results in commercial traffic not going through Salmon Arm, it will be a huge favour for the people, the residents of Salmon Arm. Our kids. So that is where that idea has come from.

“I mean, everybody knows the commercial traffic through town is a problem; it’s not just a problem for us, it’s a problem for the drivers of those trucks. They would rather not come through a whole bunch of lights through the downtown.”

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In addition to looking at a bypass, the mayor’s task force will also be charged with researching options for a truck stop/RV pull-out/tourism information centre, as well as ways of improving pedestrian and vehicular traffic safety through Salmon Arm. This latter part would build on a study of the Trans-Canada Highway corridor already completed by ICBC and the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure.

“Members of the task force, their first piece of homework is they’re going to read the report that’s been done,” said Harrison. “And it’s about 50 pages of really interesting reading all about stats and all about ideas for traffic calming, and many of those have not been implemented… There’s reasons why they haven’t been implemented, because some of them are tied to other things that are happening.

“So the task force is going to have to look at those calming strategies, they’re going to prioritize them, and they’re going to make recommendations to council.”

One example provided by Harrison is whether or not commercial truck traffic should be restricted to one lane, and which one, right or left?

“We all probably have ideas about that and the ministry has ideas about that,” said Harrison. “Well, I think the task force needs to look at it, and not just look at it within our city but what’s happening in other places.”

Regarding an information centre/RV pullout/truck stop, Harrison said he’s seen models elsewhere in the province that serve their communities.

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“They’re effective because they do a number of things,” explained Harrison. “One, it gets people to stop in our city which is good economically. Two, it allows people time to make plans while they’re stopped rather than trying to do it on your phone while you’re moving. And three, it avoids all the commercial trucks that park everywhere. Sicamous has a problem right now, it avoids that. There’s a place for them to go.”

Harrison adds that even with a bypass, such a travel centre would still be utilized.

As for the tourism information part, Harrison’s preference would incorporate an Indigenous cultural experience.

“You see those if you go to Oliver or Osoyoos – if you go to the tourist information there, it’s like a mini museum and there’s a lot of information about Indigenous people and also about the area. Certainly that’s a vision I have in the back of my head.”

Harrison said neighbouring First Nations would be invited to the task force, but not MOTI staff, as it will be up to council to accept the task force’s recommendations and then work with the province.

“I don’t want the task force’s ideas to be hindered by opinions outside of our city,” commented Harrison. “I totally value ICBC and MOTI’s contribution to the study, and those are clear in there. I don’t agree with them all. But I think what we have to do, is we have to decide, look, this is our city, this is what we want, this is what we’re going to recommend to council; we want you to do your best to be able to negotiate with the provincial government which looks after the highway.

“With any idea, there’s lots of reasons not to do it. You can always come up with reasons why it won’t work. That’s not what I want this task force to do.

I want them to come up with reasons why it’s going to work, why we can do it.”


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