The Nanaimo Avenue bridge above Penticton Creek is slated for removal which could happen as early as this week.
This work is a part of the Penticton Creek Mitigation Project to naturalize and restore flood protection on the creek.
“It’s a necessity as part of the creek restoration project. The design flows that have been calculated would indicate that the level of the water will actually be a foot above the bottom beam supporting the bridge,” said City of Penticton special projects manager Ian Chapman.
“What we actually need when designing for this kind of project is about two feet of clearance under those points. So, we are well beyond where we need to be.”
But not all residents are on board with the project, Ken Simpson, who has lived along the creek for years, says the bridge removal isn’t necessary.
“This bridge does not need to be (removed), there’s still many years left in this bridge like look a 30-tonne backhoe sitting on the bridge right now,” said Simpson while pointing at the bridge.
Simpson went on to say that he believes the city is removing the bridge to eliminate vehicle traffic in the downtown core.
“My main concern is that local environmental groups they’re pushing to remove all bridges in town and create as much traffic congestion as they can,” he said.
“So, it’ll force people into cycling and that’s wrong. We have too many people with mobility issues.”
However, the city says that is not the case.
“There is no intention by the city to eliminate or to force people out of vehicles,” said Chapman.
“What we’re generally doing in the city is to make sure that the needs of pedestrians and cyclists are properly addressed — we (are) certainly trying to encourage a better situation in those terms but in terms of the bridge being part of some master initiative to get people out of the cars, it’s not.”
Construction and the removal will disrupt traffic in the area, but Chapman says the city is prepared.
“Our traffic engineer who has studied the situation has established that there is no significant impact to the lack of functionality that’s going to be associated with the existing intersections,” he said.
“Even though the city is planning to implement some upgrades to the Westminster Avenue East Elm Street intersection.”
The project has been in the works since 2020 but has faced several delays due to the pandemic and recent weather.
According to the city, the project should be completed in September or October of this year.
“This is going to be a big, complex, busy project and we’ve had to limit access so that people can’t get too near to potentially dangerous operations,” said Chapman.
“We apologize for any inconvenience that we are causing, and we look for their patience while we get this job done, and get all the planting done so we can restore this to a beautiful asset for the city.