Changes to Highway 97 intersection between Peachland and West Kelowna driven by safety

Anyone driving in the evening or early morning hours on Highway 97 between Peachland and West Kelowna knows about the traffic diversions at the intersection with Trepanier Bench Road for the past two weeks.

The highway was closed north of the intersection from 6:30 pm to 6:30 am beginning March 15, and last week the closure was extended to March 27 so crews could perform storm revision and road restoration work at the intersection, as well as on Buchanan Road, Huston Road and Desert Pines Avenue. When the Peachland Post went to press this week, no further extensions to the closure had been announced.

But that’s just the beginning of the Ministry of Transportation and Transit (MOTT) project which includes installing a traffic light at the intersection, widening the highway, changes to how vehicles enter and exit the highway, and making Desert Pines Avenue into a one-way street. The project is due for completion by the end of June, said Peachland mayor Patrick Van Minsel, and Peachland residents have long been asking for a dangerous intersection to be made safer.

“These changes came because our residents are asking for this for many, many years to make it a safer intersection, so on one of our trips to Victoria, we lobbied for this with the minister of transportation. And the second trip when we went back after some more lobbying, we got the news that they were going to do it, that it was approved in the budget, so they started it this year,” said Van Minsel. “That means they’re going to do an intersection with lights and they’re also going to realign the highway a little bit because they need a bit more space.”

Additional changes include a left turn lane from Highway 97 onto Buchanan Road and a new median on Buchanan. Exactly when the traffic light will be installed isn’t clear (District of Peachland staff did not respond to requests for further details by press time.) Statistics taken from ICBC’s website show four crashes at the intersection between 2020 and 2024 and one crash at the adjacent intersection of Desert Pines Avenue and Trepanier. West Kelowna RCMP media relations officer Corporal Devon Gerrits said only three incidents were reported at the intersection in 2025, but “despite not being a huge number it doesn’t necessarily mean that poor or dangerous driving behaviour isn’t taking place there,” he said in an email.

Converting Desert Pines Avenue into a one-way in the direction of Trepanier Bench Road is part of the project. Previous councils had objected to that because of residents’ concerns about accessing their properties, said Van Minsel, but MOTT is moving ahead and Van Minsel said he supports the change for safety reasons. With a potential line of motorists on Trepanier Bench Road waiting to access Highway 97 at the new traffic light, motorists exiting the highway and attempting to turn left onto Desert Pines could create a dangerous back-up of traffic onto the highway. Motorists coming off the highway onto Trepanier will need to access Desert Pines by travelling straight up Trepanier and turning left onto Coldham Road. “They (MOTT) looked at all the scenarios, and this was the best scenario for safety. You cannot have people exiting the highway and then crossing Trepanier to turn onto Desert Pines. That’s just really disruptive,” he said.

Desert Pines Avenue resident Anne Wigfield said in an email that she appreciates that the work needs to be done and there will be a period of adjustment, but added that the one-way could cause problems for some vehicles. “Some vehicles are too long (switchbacks) and too high (electrical lines) to accommodate these vehicles on the lower part of Desert Pines. If they can’t go back from whence they came – then what?” she said. “Also, with garbage trucks if it is only one-way, then some households will probably have to deliver their garbage to the other side of the road for pick-up — perhaps not a big deal and even helpful for collection purposes. School children will also be adjusting to their school bus possibly arriving on the other side of the road to pick them up.”

Signage will be an important part of the new one-way so no one gets caught being unable to exit from Desert Pines Avenue, said Wigfield, and with wildfire season approaching, she hopes in an emergency that “horse trailers and those individuals coming to help get animals out will not get caught in an impossible situation.”

Ted Black lives at 3904 Desert Pines Avenue and he said the change preventing motorists from turning left across Trepanier to go up Desert Pines is good for safety. “It’s not a very good intersection as it is now because if you’re coming off the highway turning right and then you cross, there’s people turning left off the highway and then you’re coming across their lane but it is a dangerous way to do it in in some respects,he said. “Because you know some drivers, how they are, they’re pretty aggressive.”

Last week the District of Peachland also announced that Coldham Road is closed until May 8 for completion of upgrades at a new five-lot subdivision including new sidewalks, street lights and road restoration. Funded by the subdivision’s developer, the $1-million project will be followed by district-funded work to increase safety at the intersection of Coldham and Trepanier, said Van Minsel, and will help with the increased traffic at the intersection created by the new one-way at Desert Pines Avenue. “We’re going to make the intersection at Trepanier Bench Road and Coldham safer for people to use,” he said.

— This story was originally published by the Peachland Post.