The multi-use path would go up Summit Drive to Whiteshield Crescent South and cost $2 million (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

SUMMIT MULTI-USE PATH

City says $2 million to pay for more than just blacktop on Summit Drive multi-use path

Feb 13, 2020 | 5:08 PM

KAMLOOPS — After city council approved the construction of a new multi-use path along Summit Drive, plans are already underway to put the project in motion. The city has applied for a half a million dollar grant to help fund the $2 million dollar path.

The expansion would start where the Xget’tem’ Trail ends at the corner of Summit and Notre Dame Drive. It would end at Whiteshield Cresent South and connect with Peterson Creek Park.

Mayor Ken Christian says adding two kilometres to the route will add to the city’s connectivity.

“Your trail network is only as good as what it connects people to, and to offer the citizens of Upper Sahali access to downtown and a safe way to get there as an alternative to drive I think is excellent,” said Christian.

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Christian says with a potential $500,000 provincial transportation grant, it makes the project even more desirable.

“The provincial government has funding available for these kinds of initiatives in cities, so if we are successful we would be building that extension with 75 cent-dollars, and in my mind that’s a good deal for the Kamloops taxpayer.”

If the grant isn’t successful, the half-million dollars would come from the city transportation reserve.

Image Credit: City of Kamloops

Cyclists like Pierre Filisetti thinks the $2-million cost is steep, but says he would use the path regularly.

“As an avid cyclist and a commuter that is often on foot and occasionally on my bicycles, I welcome the expansion of a multi-use trail network throughout the city,” he said.

City councillor Bill Sarai voted in favour of the project, but he wants to draw attention to other, more important projects in neighbourhoods like Parkcrest that are without sidewalks.

“Before a multi-use path that’s going to be used by not a lot of the segment of the population, our schools are really in dire need of sidewalks,” noted Sarai. “It’s a want over a need, and we’re talking about taking cars off the roads to help our environment. I think the best way is sidewalks around schools [that] will eliminate a lot of parents driving their kids to school, picking them up after school.”

The city’s director of development, engineering and sustainability Marvin Kwiatkowski says project will also include lighting, landscaping, and installing another traffic light on Summit prior to Springhill Drive to offer motorists an easier left-hand turn onto the Trans Canada Highway.

Construction will begin in June with access to the multi-path by the end of 2020.