Events

Community Input Wanted: Actions Due to Paving the Pat Bay Highway between Sayward and Haliburton

It looks like the ministry of transportation may have some money to pave the section of highway between Haliburton and Sayward this year and the engineers want to carry out other low cost improvements wherever they can. From a long list of possible upgrades they have selected the following items. The proposed action is given in bold and the position of the CBA is given below it. Read them carefully and send any supporting comments, criticisms etc to Shorthill@shaw.ca and they will be forwarded to the ministry.

If you want to see the long term outlook for the highway go to: http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/transportation/transportation-reports-and-reference/reports-studies/vancouver-island

This report was updated last year and it includes mention of closing minor roads and driveways.  Also on the web is a CBA article from 2012 covering much of the same ground

https://cbaca.ca/pat-bay-highway-safety/

Proposed Actions

Closure of the lane from Cordova Bay Road south onto the highway.

This is a dangerous way to gain access to the highway and this change is supported on safety grounds. The current traffic must be re-routed and it should not be a problem at the moment as the volume of traffic is not large. However, there is a plan to redevelop the old Trio gravel pit with approximately 380 residential units. Such an increase in density coupled with the removal of an access point means there will traffic chaos in this part of the community if measures are not taken to accommodate the change.

Closure of the exit from the highway onto Cordova Bay Road for south bound traffic

The people who use this exit want to get to the north end of Cordova Bay and would prefer to turn at the Sayward light but the timing is very inconvenient (120 second for through traffic 12 seconds? for the left turn onto Sayward).

If this ratio is improved then this change can be supported.

 Acceleration lane from Hamsterly onto the highway

 With extra space made available by modifying the junction at Cordova Bay Road, there will be room for an acceleration lane from the Hamsterly onto the highway. Saanich wants to retain the traffic island at the southern end just past Elk Lake beach so the new lane must be long enough for a car to accelerate from a standstill up to highway speeds before merging with the highway traffic. Once the lane is built then some businesses can close their present entrances/ exits, which are on the highway itself.

 Refurbish the Claremont exit  

 As there is no change to the way this junction functions just to its appearance, this action is supported.

Upgrade the Haliburton intersection

This is the most complex issue but the upgrade should include:

– Safe pedestrian access to the ridge from the highway bus stops

– Faster traffic throughput for vehicles turning left and going south on the highway

Incorporate the Saanich bicycle trail and side walk at the junction.

For this last item to succeed there must be close collaboration between the ministry and Saanich.