Improved Roundabout Safety for Heavy Vehicles and Vulnerable Users, Sicamous, BC

The Okanagan Valley Corridor program of improvements to safety and reliability included the Highway 97A / Main Street Roundabout upgrade in Sicamous, largely known as a resort town on Shuswap Lake, 140 km east of Kamloops. McElhanney Consulting Services Ltd. (McElhanney) was retained by BC MoTI for the preliminary and detailed design of this $5.7M project that provided significant improvements to facilities for pedestrians and cyclists, improved access to the community and local businesses, and included several design features to accommodate oversize permit vehicles. This project replaced a geometrically substandard multi-leg intersection on Highway 97A in Sicamous, BC with a 4-leg modern roundabout. The original, multi-leg, 45-degree skewed intersection configuration was confusing and so geometrically insufficient that local users avoided the intersection and dubbed it “the Octopus.” There were no facilities for cyclists or pedestrians, and students of the adjacent high school crossed the highway irregularly. The community of Sicamous has a high proportion of seniors. It is also a base for numerous houseboat rental companies on Shuswap Lake, requiring seasonal hauling of houseboats through the intersection. The new design provides several unique features for heavy vehicles, especially oversize permit vehicles, which helped the Province of BC gain trucking industry acceptance of roundabouts on numbered highways. The project includes safe and effective pedestrian and cyclist integration; rain gardens with native, drought-resistant plantings; and a community-based public art installation.

• Record URL:
  https://www.tac-atc.ca/sites/default/files/conf_papers/roundabouts-complete.pdf
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Association of Canada (TAC)

  401-1111 Prince of Wales Drive
  Ottawa, Ontario  Canada 
• Authors:
  • Newcombe, E
• Conference:
  • TAC 2018: Innovation and Technology: Evolving Transportation - 2018 Conference and Exhibition of the Transportation Association of Canada
• Publication Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Pagination: 1 PDF file, 3.5 MB, 20p.
• Monograph Title: TAC 2018: Innovation and Technology: Evolving Transportation - 2018 Conference and Exhibition of the Transportation Association of Canada

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Conferences; Cyclists; Improvements; Intersections; Landscaping; Layout; Pedestrians; Roundabouts
• Geographic Terms: Canada
• ITRD Terms: 8018: Canada; 8525: Conference; 1742: Cyclist; 9108: Improvement; 455: Junction; 2887: Landscaping; 2885: Layout; 1216: Longer and heavier vehicle; 1733: Pedestrian; 438: Roundabout
• Subject Areas: Pedestrians and Bicyclists; I21: Planning of Transport Infrastructure; I82: Accidents and Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01683293
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transportation Association of Canada (TAC)
• Files: ITRD, TAC
• Created Date: Oct 16 2018 2:05PM