While planning is being sped up on building a permanent new road out of Juniper, an extra emergency route will also soon be ready to use.
The City of Kamloops says work is being done to make a gravel road usable for emergencies, between Coldwater Drive in Juniper and High Canada Place in Rose Hill.
It says that work will be done over the next two weeks. When it’s done, a locked gate will stay in place in Juniper unless it’s ordered to be opened.
NL News has reached out to city manager David Trawin for further details on the work being done.
Earlier this year, Kamloops city council approved a change to the Transportation Master Plan to ensure the route between Coldwater Drive and High Canada Place never becomes a thoroughfare – but instead to use it for emergencies only.
A developer will be building 100 new single family homes on an extension to Coldwater Drive, after council approved that development last month, and as part of that the developer had agreed to pave the emergency route between Coldwater Drive and High Canada Place.
A second permanent, paved thru road in and out of Juniper will be in a different location: connecting Juniper West to lower Rose Hill, by extending Qu’Appelle Boulevard. The city is working with the province to expediate the timeline on building that by gaining right-of-way access through Crown land.
The new urgency on improving secondary road access in and out of Juniper Ridge comes after the entire neighbourhood had to evacuate on a moment’s notice on Canada Day, after lightning started a wildfire just metres from some homes.
The evacuation caused lengthy backups on Highland Road – the only legitimate route in and out of Juniper – with some people reporting it took them well over an hour to travel the 2.5 kilometres down the hill to Valleyview Drive. Some have told NL News they thought they were going to die in their vehicles.
Fortunately, no homes were lost and no one was injured, as fire crews were able to get a quick jump on the blaze and were aided by rain and changing wind directions.
Civic Operations crews have begun work on improving the Coldwater Rd – High Canada Place emergency exit road. Work is expected to take 2 weeks to complete. Once complete, the gates will remain locked unless ordered opened by the Emergency Operations Center. #kamloops pic.twitter.com/cQaM1wBvoD
— City of Kamloops (@cityofkamloops) July 13, 2021
