K, being a local at the time, was faced with the necessity of crossing the lake into Kelowna daily during the time that this bridge was being built. Traffic on the old, three lane bridge was, at certain times of the day, not all that heavy. But, in the afternoons of the hottest days of summer, when K had to recross the lake, traffic could back up in Kelowna almost to the eastern end of Kelowna. This would mean that crossing the lake from his place of work, a trip of 3 or 4 miles, could require one hour or more.
You can imagine his relief when the new bridge opened. One hour trips became 7 minute trips.
One might think that a five lane bridge, with 3 lanes going east and 2 going west might invite huge traffic jams each weekday morning, with all the Westsiders heading into Kelowna. For the most part, this is not the case as by far the heaviest traffic is out of Kelowna in the afternoon.
Built by SNC-Lavalin at a total cost of $179,000,000, it took a total of 37 months to get it done. The cost noted above includes approximately 30 years of maintenance.
A floating bridge, it replaces a floating bridge because I expect that is the most cost efficient type of bridge in this situation. One major advantage of the new bridge is that it has no lift span to allow vessels to pass, thereby preventing 20,000 cars from passing while the vessel passes. The new bridge has, instead, a high span toward the west end, eliminating the need for the lift span.