Construction on Nelson’s new transit exchange is slated to start in late August, with completion scheduled for late October.
Once complete, the transit exchange currently located on Ward and Stanley will be moved to its new home on the 300 block of Victoria Street, between Stanley and Kootenay Streets.
BC Transit representative David Lenton presented Nelson City Council with the first project update since February at Tuesday’s council meeting.
During February’s update, concerns were raised regarding the project’s impact on street parking, existing loading zones, and their potential impacts on local businesses.
This prompted the project team to redesign the project slightly to address these concerns, with the 90 per cent complete design presented to council this week.
In the revised design, plans for a mid-block crosswalk were removed to allow for additional street parking on the north side of the exchange.
On the south side, Lenton explained that they were able to retain the loading zone and reposition it to accommodate larger transit buses coming off Kootenay Street onto Victoria.
Now, the project team is finalizing its completed project design and will submit it for approval from the city in the coming weeks.
By mid-July, they will be posting the tender to BC Bid and begin setting up signage advising the public of construction, which should begin in late August. Lenton said they’re expecting to reach the 50 per cent milestone by September, with completion expected by the end of October.
Lenton couldn’t give an exact date for when the new exchange will be in service but said there will be a significant amount of communication with residents throughout the project timeline to keep the community informed.
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