(Image Credit: CFJC Today / Kent Simmonds)
TODD ROAD IMPROVEMENTS

City wraps up Todd Road improvements in Barnhartvale

Nov 27, 2019 | 5:04 PM

KAMLOOPS — It’s back to business as usual for drivers in the Barnhartvale area, with road and sidewalk improvements to Todd Road now complete.

Starting in May this year, construction finished in November, about one month later than originally expected. A few clean-up and beautification aspects are still on the city’s to-do list for the project, but the road is paved and the sidewalks are finished.

According to City of Kamloops Capital Projects Manager, Darren Crundwell, the cost was slightly under the original $4 million budget estimate.

“(There were) standard construction issues. (Residents who) wish we would have had planned better — us and the contractor, and accommodation of transit and things like that,” Crundwell explains. “Just working in a really narrow corridor in an area that wasn’t really ever designed to have that type of road through it. Really steep driveways on both sides and we have a few issues to work out there, but primarily the project met its objectives.”

The city is still gathering feedback on how people living in the area were affected by the roadwork, given the disruption to traffic.

“Part of the concerns from the public up there was the time it took for the road portion to get constructed. But we did wait for the utility funding.” Crundwell says. “I mean I know (we’ve heard from) the residents living directly on it. We’ve had a lot of questions about horses, and where can we walk our horses, and who is cleaning up the horse droppings?’. I’ve had a lot of those questions, which obviously, there is rural traffic in that area. But not too much feedback as of yet.”

Come springtime in 2020, Crundwell says the city will move to the other side of Barnhartvale, and will begin repaving a section of Barnhartvale Road.