A new, expanded five-lane commuter bridge in the fast-growing B.C. Interior city of Kelowna will open to traffic on Sunday 50 years after the area's Okanagan Lake bridge was first built.

The William R. Bennett bridge aims to ease the congestion and pressure for the more than 45,000 commuters who cross between Kelowna on the east side of Okanagan Lake and the municipality of Westside every day.

Construction on the kilometre-long floating bridge began in July 2005 and is expected to be just barely completed by its official opening day on Sunday.

This weekend's opening is welcome news for B.C. Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon, who promised to jump off the bridge if the project was not completed by May 25th.

Earlier this week, workers like contractor Rob Scott were confident the bridge would be completed by Sunday even though concrete was still being poured into the bridge's joints.

"It does look like there's some unfinished business here," he told CTV News. "There's unfinished business, but we're tending to it right now."

Likewise, Concrete Quality Control worker Des O'Brien agreed workers would have the project finished.

"They're pushing hard," he said. "I don't think they want the minister to have to jump in the water."

John Buckle, director of the project with the Ministry of Transportation, said there will be no delay to this weekend's much-hyped grand opening.

"Not a chance," he said. "No, we've put a lot of time and effort into planning this and there will be traffic flowing on the bridge the day after the event."

Key components of the bridge construction include:

  • Six floating pontoons, weighing 7,000 tonnes each
  • Three smaller pontoons, weighing 3,000 to 4,000 tonnes each
  • 2,200 tonnes of structural steelwork
  • 25,000 cubic metres of concrete
  • 24 anchors, weighing 75 tonnes, to hold pontoons in place
  • 15,000 cubic metres of Styrofoam fill at the west end of project

The bridge's opening date was moved up by 108 days from the original scheduled completion date of fall 2008.

Live views of the bridge can be seen here.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Kent Molgat