Work to begin on one of the Okanagan Rail Trail’s missing links

Traffic will be interrupted on Manhattan Drive in the north end of downtown Kelowna next week in order to bring the Okanagan Rail Trail to the waterfront.

The Kelowna section of the 50 kilometre Okanagan Rail Trail runs from Kelowna International Airport to Ellis Street and is paved for that entire distance.

Starting on Monday, May 10, Manhattan Drive from Sunset Drive to Ellis Street will be down to one lane of alternating traffic as work begins to extend the trail, a City of Kelowna news release states.

On-street parking will be removed from the north side of Manhattan Drive in order to create a three-metre bike and walking path at street level.

In the future, it might be converted to a four-metre wide protected pathway at sidewalk level, the City said.

The $180,000 project is expected to take about a month to finish.

That leaves only a seven kilometre stretch from the airport to Lake Country that still needs to be built in order to complete the path all the way to Coldstream. The Okanagan Indian Band is still waiting for the federal government to transfer part of that stretch, along Duck Lake, to the band.


To contact a reporter for this story, email Rob Munro or call 250-808-0143 or email the editor. You can also submitphotos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. 

Join the Conversation!

Want to share your thoughts, add context, or connect with others in your community?

Rob Munro

Rob Munro has a long history in journalism after starting an underground newspaper in Whitehorse called the Yukon Howl in 1980. He spent five years at the 100 Mile Free Press, starting in the darkroom, moving on to sports and news reporting before becoming the advertising manager. He came to Kelowna in 1989 as a reporter for the Kelowna Daily Courier, and spent the 1990s mostly covering city hall. For most of the past 20 years he worked full time for the union representing newspaper workers throughout B.C. He’s returned to his true love of being a reporter with a special focus on civic politics