Top Photo: Tranquille Road- Recently Completed Multi-use Path. Bottom Photo: Alternative Section Looking West - Crestline Street to Southill Street
Kamloops City Council has given the green-light to upgraded plans for the drive and ride to and from the airport.
At Tuesday’s meeting, council was asked to look at finding roughly eight to nine-million dollars to create a ‘green belt’ from Fulton Field along Tranquille.
Council decided to approve $9-million towards the new plan, which will see the bike paths and the sidewalks on either side, separated from the roadway by trees and greenery.
“It’s a pretty important entrance corridor to the city and I think when tourists come in, when business persons come in they’re going to say ‘Kamloops is wow…It is a pretty amazing place,'” Councillor Arjun Singh said, calling the move an aesthetically pleasing one.
“Just because the look of it will be so much more improved.”
Councillor Bill Sarai, who lives in Brocklehurst, added it is a move that just makes sense.
“To have something wider, safer and we are always promoting the multi use pathway to keep our bicyclists safe and away from traffic, this is a win for us in that area,” he said.
Sarai added that the new plan also aligns with what council has already done on Tranquille Road up to Southill Street
“That multi use pathway is already started and to go back to a narrow sidewalk in my opinion would not match and it would not look right,” he said.
North Shore Business Improvement Association Executive Director Jeremy Heighton says the ‘green belt’ plan is an addition to the Tranquille upgrade work that has been underway since 2015.
He says the proposal would fit with the larger plans in-place for the area, including recreational assets, something he thinks is needed on the North Shore to help connect all the rivers, trails and other recreational routes.
“We are moving more into a white collar type of community with different types of industry and different types of travel and much more tourism based, so the entry way into the airport is a critical piece of that infrastructure,” Heighton said.
The timeline to complete the upgraded ‘greenbelt’ project has not been finalized at this point.
Design work is set to start right away, with the expectation that the ‘greening’ project could be finished within four years.
