Credit: Mel Rothenburger

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: Summit pedestrian overpass proposal hasn’t improved with age

Jun 17, 2020 | 4:44 AM

KAMLOOPS — TUCKED AWAY IN A MOTION to add several capital project allocations back into the City’s five-year financial plan yesterday was a brief mention of the Summit overpass.

One of the expenditures recommended by staff was $731,334 for an “active transportation” capital fund that included, in brackets, the “next major project: Summit Overpass.”

Nobody on council asked any questions. They were fine removing a few hundred thousand for much-needed storage for the museum and for Old Courthouse renovations, and they questioned the McArthur Island ring road.

But the overpass, a planning chestnut that’s been around for at least eight years, caused nary a raised eyebrow.

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It remains an idea whose time should never come. Its estimated cost started at a couple of million dollars and in 2020 it would likely be closer to $6 million.

Somehow, it got into the Pedestrian Master Plan, which makes it official policy, and it won’t go away. Since 2013, the City has been hoping for grant money to go along with the nest egg it’s building to make it happen.

This project is for the sole purpose of pandering to lazy students from Upper College Heights who would rather run a straight-line gauntlet across four lanes of traffic to TRU than walk a couple of hundred meters to a crosswalk.

The obvious solution is to build a fence down the centre of the median to force the students to the crosswalk, an idea that’s been around for at least a couple of decades and would likely cost about five per cent as much as an overpass the kids might not use anyway — why, after all, climb stairs when you can take your life in your hands out on the road?

Though TRU would be only too happy to see the City spend money on it, it would be a complete waste of money.

Council could easily have put that $731,000 to much better use yesterday if they’d reminded themselves of that.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.