FORSETH – We’re looking at least another three years for new Red Bridge
(Image: Mel Rothenburger)
The province is conducting a lengthy planning and design process ~~ AI
The Ministry of Transportation issued a request for qualifications (RFQ) Monday (Dec. 19) to “guide transportation planning options” in partnership with the City of Kamloops and Tkemlúps te Secwépemc following the loss of the 88-year-old bridge ~~ CFJC Today December 12, 2024
NINE MONTH LATER (September 18, 2025) a BC Government media release states, ‘A planning process is underway to explore options for reconnecting Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc lands and Kamloops’
ONE YEAR AGO, on Thursda,y September 19, an arsonist(s) set fire to, and destroyed, the Red Bridge in Kamloops. It was the second time as an earlier attempt, two days previous, had failed to do the job.
Twelve months after the Red Bridge was deliberately destroyed, Kamloops residents are still left wondering when they’ll be able to once again drive from River Street across the South Thompson River to access the Mount Paul Industrial area.
After all, how much planning, engineering, measuring does it take to span a couple hundred feet across the South Thompson River, where a bridge had already been located?
As far as they’ve managed to get is to once again re-announce the planning process is underway, and as yesterday’s media release indicated, ‘The preferred options from the planning process are expected to be shared with the public in spring 2026.’
This Spring? Now we’re up to eighteen (18) months – and still NO bridge!
How does that fit with the Ministry of Transportation and Transit assuring us that they, ‘… remain committed to advancing the planning process as quickly as possible …’
Just think; once the ‘conceptual design for a modern replacement bridge on the original alignment’ is presented, the government is going to have to issue a Request For Proposals (RFP) so that construction companies can bid on the project. From there, how many more months will it take to choose the winning bid?
But still, we won’t have a bridge.
Materials will have to be lined up for the new structure … crews lined up to build it … and then, from what I’ve heard, the construction phase will take at least two years.
So … we’re looking at least another three years for vehicles to start rolling across a new replacement Red Bridge.
Anyone care to guess what happens in three (3) years?
In 2008, after B.C. Interior residents had conducted a concerted campaign to have tolls removed on the Coquihalla Highway, Premier Gordon Campbell and Finance Minister Kevin Falcon ‘went behind the controls of a bulldozer to kick off demolition of the toll booths’ (CBC), ending years of tolls. Months later an election was called for 2009.
Looks like we’ll be holding the provinces 44th General Election (in 2028), just in time for NDP Premier David Eby (if he’s still around) to have a grand opening ribbon cutting to finally open a new bridge. Maybe we’ll even have a spectacle with him in a hard hat and hi-rez vest, with a pneumatic or hydraulic wrench in hand, putting in the last bolt before driving across in a Ministry of Transportation dump truck.
All I can say is, this is taking a hell of a long time.
Alan Forseth is a Kamloops resident. For 40 years he has been active, in a number of capacities, in local, provincial and federal politics, including running as a candidate for the BC Reform Party in the 1996 provincial election. He is secretary of the Conservative Party of B.C. He blogs at Thoughts on BC Politics and More.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Alan, for anyone who is familiar with the geography of the area, we have a problem. The problem is train traffic that may block access to an arena full of people when an ammonia gas leak happens. In that case, the only access for emergency vehicles is the underpass at First Avenue.
Another scenario is a fire at the hotel that is across from Riverside Park.
The replacement of the red bridge is a paramount safety issue.
Three years is too long to wait. I pointed out the safety concern to Mayor Hamer-Jackson shortly after the bridge burned and I believe he wanted a new bridge built sooner than later.
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Here goes Mr. Forseth again, building bridges even in places where there are no rivers to cross—how quickly you forget that the Halston Bridge was promised by Claude Richmond during four elections. You write, “In 2008, after B.C. Interior residents had conducted a concerted campaign to have tolls removed on the Coquihalla Highway, Premier Gordon Campbell and Finance Minister Kevin Falcon ‘went behind the controls of a bulldozer to kick off demolition of the toll booths’ (CBC), ending years of tolls; months later an election was called for 2009.” Yes, you are right, Mr. Forseth, but just after spending $200,000 to renovate a booth, they took a bulldozer to it as an election carrot, and people did not lie down when Falcon and the local candidate attempted to privatize the Coquihalla to place the money in private hands rather than to serve the public need.
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Way to long, I’m not sure some of the businesses over there will survive that long.
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It is not taking a hell of lot of time, come on Alan. There are financial pressures everywhere including the need to placate the vociferous and demanding public sector unions, bureaucrats, doctors, lawyers and what have you coupled with the ample money required to placate the multitude of climate related disasters. Then of course there are all the municipalities in BC also with their hands out for more of this and more of that. And then they are busy building ghettos everywhere for which we are likely not even remotely close to find out how big of a money pit that will eventually become.
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BC has one of the best managed economies in Canada. Its debt to GDP ratio is only outperformed by Alberta which has nothing to do with management, but is due to Oil, and gas revenues. Alan is a critic by omission, and he knows his Conservatives have nothing better to offer and people are not listening to them
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