It has begun.
After years of accidents, fatalities, petitions and finally a July 2020 announcement by BC Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Claire Trevena, the installation of concrete traffic barriers on a big chunk of Hwy 97 in the South Okanagan finally commenced Sunday evening.
The project, which will ultimately see median barriers installed along eight kilometers of the highway between Sun-Oka Beach, just south of Trout Creek, and West Bench Hill Road, just north of Penticton city limits, was one of two announced in the July 31st Ministry press release.
The second involves a 5.9-kilometre section of Hwy 97A between Smith Drive in Armstrong and Pleasant Valley Road in Vernon.
When PentictonNow arrived on the scene just prior to midnight Sunday, crews were spotted working at the north end of the planned install, a few dozen meters from the Sun-Oka parking lot.
Several barriers were already in place and we watched as several more were lifted from a long flatbed trailer and carefully placed in the median.
Sunday night traffic was expectedly light, and numerous roadside signs in both directions instructed drivers to keep their speeds to a maximum of 60 km/h in the work zone. Despite that, we noticed the majority of vehicles were traveling quite a bit faster -- as verified by the northbound radar speed sign -- until within eyesight of the work crews.
Serious head-on collisions and fatalities aren’t unusual on the Penticton to Peachland section of Hwy 97, where posted speeds often hit 100 km/h and median barriers are only occasionally present.
Notoriety over the situation peaked early this year when a motorist died in a head-on crash just north of Summerland and Prince George resident and frequent South Okanagan traveler Mick Harper launched an online petition that within a month had garnered nearly 27,000 signatures.
In February, Penticton MLA Dan Ashton, a vocal proponent of increased Hwy 97 safety measures, presented that petition to the BC Legislature.
Interestingly, the current barrier projects do not address that particular stretch of road.
According to the press release, work is expected to continue on the Penticton to Summerland section throughout much of November. Installation will occur outside the peak traffic hours of 6 am to 9 am and 3 pm to 7 pm, and current signage indicates it may be confined to evenings.
Drivers are advised to expect minor delays and to obey construction zone speed limits and traffic personnel.
