Kelowna’s City Park walkway is about to get a $1.5-million upgrade as part of phase two of the City Park Improvements project.
A 50-metre stretch of the old stone paved promenade is about to be torn up and replaced with a concrete multi-use path that will be wider and smoother.
“We’re replacing our pathway — it’s three and a half metres wide — with a new six-metre concrete multi-use path,” said City of Kelowna project manager Todd DeGruchy.
At just under 20 feet wide, the new multi-use path will provide plenty of room for the high volume of pedestrian and bicycle traffic the waterfront promenade sees as one the city’s most prominent parks.”
“It will be beautiful,” added DeGruchy.
But the long-awaited project isn’t just a pathway resurfacing, it’s a bit of a facelift for the city’s much-loved park.
“There’s new lighting, new benches … garbage receptacles, there’s also some foreshore protection work that will take place,” DeGruchy explained.
“Logs and trees are being planted to sustain some of the sand on our beach,”.
It’s been almost 12 years since Kelowna’s oldest park has seen a major capital project. In 2021, a bathroom facility near the park’s Cold Sands beach was constructed as phase one of the City Park Improvements project.
However, lovers of a leisurely stroll in the park will have to endure some pain before they’re able to enjoy the gain, in the form of a walkway detour.
“The area will be … delineated with fencing just to keep the public out of the construction zone,” DeGruchy said.
Pedestrian and cyclist traffic will be rerouted from the Cold Sands bathrooms across to the multi-use path at the south end of the park until the end of May.