Road Closure Still Under Discussion

The city of Vernon is still talking to businesses who will be impacted by an upgrade to Kalamalka Lake Road this year.

A multi-use path will be added from 11th Avenue to the city boundary with Coldstream, which may mean closing the road for up to two months and detouring traffic, or having alternating traffic with waits up to 15 minutes.

Mayor Akbal Mund says some Alpine Centre merchants don’t like the idea of a total closure.

“There are ramifications of keeping the road open which will be lineups on either end, and the ability for people to enter those businesses with those lineups probably won’t happen as fast as if the road was actually closed,” Mund tells Kiss FM.

City staff will provide an update on the project at council’s March 13th meeting.

Mund says he will support what the majority of merchants say.

“But I think they have to understand, if the road is kept open, the project will take more time to complete, and there may be more headaches along the way.”

Mund says the path, once completed, will bring more people to the impacted businesses, as will the Okanagan Rail Trail, which will have nearby accesses.