William R. Bennett Bridge

William R. Bennett Bridge
The bridge seen from West Kelowna, with parts of the old bridge still visible in the foreground
Carries	Motor vehicles, pedestrians and bicycles
Crosses	Okanagan Lake
Locale	Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
Official name	William R. Bennett Bridge
Maintained by	SNC-Lavalin Inc.
Characteristics
Design	Pontoon bridge
Longest span	44 metres (144 ft)
Clearance below	18 metres (59 ft)
History
Opened	May 25, 2008
Statistics
Daily traffic	50,000 vehicles

The William R. Bennett Bridge is a pontoon bridge in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada. Completed on May 25, 2008, the bridge replaced the older Okanagan Lake Bridge built in 1958 to link Downtown Kelowna to West Kelowna across Okanagan Lake as part of Highway 97.

On April 21, 2005, Premier Gordon Campbell officially renamed the bridge from the Okanagan Lake Bridge to William R. Bennett Bridge in honour of former Premier William Richards Bennett, a native of Kelowna.

The first press release from the BC Ministry of Transportation to include budget information was in 2003. At that time, the project was estimated to cost $100 million CAD for the bridge and another $20 million CAD for the two interchange upgrades on the west side of the lake.

By June 29, 2005, the cost of the bridge was increased from the previous estimate of $100 million CAD to $144 million CAD "due to dramatic increases in the cost of construction materials and labour", which includes significant increases in the cost of concrete, steel, and fuel. Over the next 30 years, the province of British Columbia expects to pay SNC-Lavalin a total of $179 million CAD "to design, build, finance, operate, maintain and rehabilitate the bridge".

Construction of concrete pontoon #2 in February 2006

Roadway towers under construction on top of pontoon #2 in June 2006

Pile driving where the west side approach was built

Heading eastbound on the completed bridge

Coordinates: 49°53′8″N 119°31′7″W / 49.88556°N 119.51861°W / 49.88556; -119.51861