Work to improve safety on a notorious stretch of Highway 97A in the North Okanagan is moving ahead, but the installation hasn’t started soon enough for some.
The province said it recently awarded a contract to install median barriers on the highway south of Armstrong.
However, the family of a local dance teacher who was killed in a crash on the highway almost two years ago says the work should have happened sooner.
Ruth Blencoe was headed to work on a snowy February day in 2019 when she lost control and crossed into oncoming traffic on Highway 97A.
The 43-year-old died as a result of the crash.
Her husband feels everything would have been different if there had been a median barrier on the highway.
“I would have had a broken car but I would still have a wife,” said George Blencoe, Ruth’s husband.
Earlier this year the province promised medians would be installed on a nearly six-kilometer stretch of the highway south of Armstrong.
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The province says the project is on schedule.
A contract to do the work was recently awarded and the contractor will be manufacturing and installing the barriers beginning this winter, the Transportation Ministry said.
It’s been nearly two years since his wife’s death, Blencoe believes they should have been installed much sooner.
“Hopefully nothing happens this winter where somebody loses their life just because there is no median barrier in there,” Blencoe said.
The stretch of highway getting the new safety infrastructure, was also the scene of a serious collision in 2017 where a semi-truck hit a cow, crossed over the center line, and crashed into a house.
The province said the construction contract requires the medians to be in place by April 30.
Blencoe hopes, until then, drivers take extra precautions to prevent another tragedy.
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