Downtown Kamloops transit users are now going to have to navigate temporary changes, thanks to the Lansdowne sewar line replacement.

The Monday, October 21st, start of the final phase of the Lansdowne project has cut off the downtown transit exchange at 6th avenue.

The City of Kamloops and BC Transit have established a temporary exchange between 4th and 6th avenues on St. Paul Street.

“We looked at a lot of different options. But there’s only so much we can do when we’re cutting a deep trench right in front of the bus exchange,” noted the City of Kamloops’ Infrastructure Delivery Divisional Manager Matt Kachel.  “There was just no way to get around it in a safe way.”

Kachel says the plan is to have the fifth and final phase of the work along Lansdowne completed by November 15th.

“That’s our projected end of the project, with everything paved up and done,” said Kachel.  “There may be a few little clean up things to do here and there, but we’ll be off the road. People won’t notice anymore. The impacts will be over.”

The City Centre Sanitary Upgrades project began in late April, and created a significant amount of early traffic chaos, as motorists trying to get too and from the north shore struggled to access the Overlanders Bridge due to the detour around phase one of the project.

At the same time, a planned, one-year rehabilitation project on the Halston Bridge which had originally been scheduled to wrap up in May, 2024 — but began two months late the year before — was no where close to being finished, adding additional headaches for north shore commuters.

Kachel says once crews complete the fifth and final phase of the Lansdowne project, a replacement sewar line won’t likely be needed for quite some time.

“Before the sanitary pipe needs to be touched again, based on growth, should be 20 years or more. We’ve got quite a bit of time… enough time for people to forget about all of the chaos that came with trying to do a major project like this.”

Meanwhile, detours the City of Kamloops had established to avoid the previous phase of work should be eliminated within days, as the final paving work on that section of the 500 block of Lansdowne is completed.

There are new restrictions for motorists heading into the downtown core through the final phase of the project.

Lansdowne will only be accessible to local traffic, as westbound traffic on to Lansdowne has been closed at the 8th avenue split.

This means all traffic coming along that route will have to remain on Victoria Street.