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The quick read: Construction is underway on a $1.7-million expansion of the Okanagan College transit exchange on K.L.O. Road, with completion expected by the end of November. The project adds a bigger bus bay and passenger platform, shelters and bike lockers, and extends the separated bikeway to the exchange, part of a city-wide upgrade of transit exchanges funded with federal, provincial, and city money.

Kelowna's busiest college transit stop is getting bigger.

Construction is underway on a $1.7-million expansion of the Okanagan College transit exchange on K.L.O. Road.

The city expects the work to be finished by the end of November.

The project adds an expanded bus bay and passenger platform, giving buses more room and riders more space to wait.

Shelters and bicycle lockers will line the north side of K.L.O. Road.

Traffic operations at the college campus main entrance will be modified, and an existing pedestrian crosswalk will move.

The K.L.O. Road separated bikeway will be extended from Campus Road West to the transit exchange.

That link connects to a continuous path running from Mission Recreation Park in the south to the Cawston Avenue pathway downtown.

It is part of the city's all-ages-and-abilities bike network.

A temporary exchange is in place during construction on K.L.O. Road, west of Campus Road West.

Riders should check the city's map for the exact temporary location.

Six trees out, fourteen in

Building the expansion means removing four small trees and two mature trees.

The project will replant 14 new trees when the work is complete.

That is a net gain of eight trees, and a reminder that infrastructure and green space do not have to be a trade-off.

Who is paying

The exchange upgrades are part of a suite of projects delivered by the City of Kelowna in partnership with BC Transit, the Province of British Columbia, and the Government of Canada.

They are supported by a grant from the federal Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program.

Three levels of government, one bus stop.

That is how transit gets built in this country now, and it is worth asking whether the money could have arrived faster with fewer hands on it.

But for students and commuters who use the exchange every day, the practical question is simpler.

More buses, more shelter, and a safer ride to the stop.

If the work finishes on schedule, they will have all three before December.

Sources: City of Kelowna, KLO / OK College Transit Exchange Expansion project page.