FORSETH – We’re looking at least another three years for vehicles to start rolling across a new replacement Red Bridge

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 Thursday September 19^th, 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 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 yesterdays 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 BC 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 44^th 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.