Detours return to downtown

Roadwork along Lansdowne Street next week will require a full detour as crews dig a trench 15 feet deep.

The City of Kamloops has contracted Extreme Excavating for its city centre sanitary upgrades project, installing a trunk sewer main along Lansdowne Street between First Avenue and Seventh Avenue to service a broader area.

Next week, the city begins stage four of the project, which will involve the 500-block of Lansdowne Street being closed to traffic for approximately two weeks, a city press release stated.

The Fifth Avenue intersection on Lansdowne will also be closed for about two weeks and, during that time, Lansdowne Street traffic will be detoured south along Sixth Avenue to St. Paul Street, then westbound on St. Paul Street to Third Avenue, and finally northbound on Third to Lansdowne Street.

“The 500-block contains the deepest part of the trench work with the pipe sitting at roughly five metres underground," Matt Kachel, the city’s infrastructure delivery divisional manager said in a press release. “For that reason, a full detour is required in this area.”

Such infrastructure is typically about two metres beneath the surface, the city said.

Kachel said the deep trench work is expected to wrap in early October, at which time one traffic lane will reopen along the south side of Lansdowne Street within the 500 block. The 5th Avenue intersection will reopen to traffic in all directions.

As the detour will take more vehicles along the two-way protected bike lane bordering Sixth Avenue, the municipality is reminding residents of the importance of sharing the road.

"Cyclists follow the same rules and regulations as motorists. Yield to cyclists as you would to any other vehicle, use caution when crossing a bike lane to turn right or pull off to the side of the road," Kachel said. "Don't drive, stop or park in a bike lane."

Kachel said stage five — the final stage of the project — will begin in mid-October and involve the full closure of Lansdowne Street from Sixth Avenue to Eighth Avenue.

The project started at the end of April and is intended to add capacity to accommodate residential and commercial growth in downtown Kamloops.

For more information on traffic updates, including anticipated delays, lane closures, and alternate routes, visit LetsTalk.Kamloops.ca/CityCentre.