City of Kamloops awaiting approval to upgrade dozens of crosswalks

KAMLOOPS — The City of Kamloops’ engineering department is hoping to get the green light from council on Tuesday (Jan. 28) to go ahead with necessary upgrades to various crosswalks around the city.

City staff has compiled a list of 47 crosswalks that need to be upgraded, in order to come in line with new national standards introduced in 2018. Staff has prioritized certain crosswalks, according to a scoring system, and eight of the top ten are along Westsyde Road.

The city took a close look at all 390 crosswalks in Kamloops and determined which ones needed fixing the most.

“Looking at accident statistics, looking at grades, looking at if it’s on a transit route, looking at other uses adjacent. Is there a school? There’s 10 different criteria we use,” said city director of development, engineering and sustainability Marvin Kwiatkowski.

Kwiatkowski says the upgrades have nothing to do with the recent pedestrian fatals that have brought certain crosswalks into question. He says a few of the crosswalks are already part of the budget and slated to be done.

“Eight of them are already in some capital project lists. They’re going to get done as part of our reconstruction and upgrades and intersections,” said Kwiatkowski. “The other 39 aren’t currently in a plan, so we’ve come up with the costing and you can see over 10 years it will be $6.5 million. How many you would do a year depends on what’s required at that crossing.”

Take a look at the full list of crosswalks slated for upgrades: