(image credit - CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

TRAFFIC FLOW

Lansdowne congestion should improve with detour to be removed after eight weeks

May 2, 2024 | 6:00 PM

KAMLOOPS — Construction season has snarled traffic across the Tournament Capital as work is still ongoing on the Halston Bridge and along Lansdowne street in downtown Kamloops.

The critical work being done along Lansdowne is part of the City Centre Sanitary Upgrades project to install a trunk sewer main from First Avenue to Seventh Avenue. Thankfully, the current detour is only expected to last eight weeks. The city is also looking into the signal timing along Lansdowne on a daily basis.

“We are actually in the hardest part of the project right now, which is the work that everybody is seeing on the intersection of First and Lansdowne. We are going to be there for about eight weeks,” said Kamloops’ Capital Projects Manager Matt Kachel. “At this point of the project, we had to do a full detour and move everybody around and counter-flow them around Lansdowne. Once that eight weeks is up and we move upward into the blocks, work our way into the Third and Fourth block, we will be able allow traffic through again and it will be a lot easier on congestion and stuff. Everyone just needs to bear with us for this first stage of the project.”

Despite the challenges already posed during the first week of construction, including a truck striking a building on Tuesday (April 30), the project is still on schedule. In response to that issue, the city has increased flaggers along the route.

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While commuters may question the move to have two routes under construction at one time, the city is only responsible for the Lansdowne work, and noted it was a project that couldn’t be delayed.

“The biggest driver of this sanitary project that we are doing on Lansdowne is growth. You see the big City Gardens tower rising, there are other plans for the area. We need to get in front of that, and get the infrastructure that is sized correctly so that those new units can go in,” said Kachel. “With the housing shortage and trying to get more things built, the city really needs to get in front of this stuff with the sewer mains and water mains so that those assets are available for developers to connect to.”