2245 replies to this topic

[Mike K.]

How do you know they didn't?   And should it take a city pounding on every door of the legislature to get funding for important infrastructure?   Is that a good use of taxpayer dollars?  Why is it that the feds gave the money without Victoria employees pounding on every door on Parliament Hill?

 

The feds require that the bridge lifts which places a substantial financial burden on tax payers. That and they have a fund in place for such projects, the Build Canada Fund. The JSB met their requirements.

 

The City approached the province in 2009 and were denied funding. Four years later construction actually started. Had there been an effort to secure funding it would have been secured, make no doubt about it. But then the City didn't even get a dime from neighbouring municipalities so one can surmise there wasn't a lot of interest to go out and lobby in the first place.

 

My question is, where were our MLA's at that time? Why were they not making a stink?

[pherthyl]

The City approached the province in 2009 and were denied funding. Four years later construction actually started. Had there been an effort to secure funding it would have been secured, make no doubt about it. But then the City didn't even get a dime from neighbouring municipalities so one can surmise there wasn't a lot of interest to go out and lobby in the first place.

 

 

Or they made the effort and didn't get the money.  It's pure conjecture either way.  The municipalities aren't exactly good at working together so that's not surprising.  

[Szeven]

Also I'm not sure if this is the thread, but what is the big deal about the overpass at Mackenzie? I cant go on any social media without something about it lately. That traffic 2 posts up is just going to bottle neck and Tillicum or Saanich, and Millstream the other way. If anything, Mackenzie makes the next couple lights drivable

[sebberry]

Much of the traffic backing up at McKenzie is heading towards UVic or down Admirals to the base.  There will be considerably less traffic past McKenzie. 

 

But that raises a good point and that is if McKenzie and admirals both back up to the highway, will traffic not simply clog up waiting to exit the highway?

[Mike K.]

The point of that interchange is to get vehicles on and off the highway without having to queue up for what can be a heck of a long distance. At $100 million this will be one massive interchange, hopefully with full flyovers eastbound-onto-McKenzie from HWY1 and northbound-onto-HWY1 from Admirals. There isn't a lot of traffic turning eastbound off McKenzie nor southbound off HWY1.

[thundergun]

I'm always surprised by how often the Tillicum light changes. I know that the intersection is staying (which I disagree with but that's another topic) but should people crossing there really get the opportunity to do so every minute or two? Why not make it a 5 minute light, at least in rush hour.

I rarely ever drive that stretch but it must be a real pain to daily commuters.

[jonny]

Problems I have noticed with McKenzie (I only ever take it on the weekends as I don't commute from out that way):

- McKenzie really backs up and going straight through to Admirals or turning left from McKenzie to go south on the TC can easily take 3 or 4 cycles through the lights (~10-15 minutes). 

- The average person does not (cannot??) properly use the acceleration lane to merge north onto the TC which causes further congestion.

- Traveling south isn't so bad because the green light is much longer than when traveling north because of the two left turn lanes going from the TC to McKenzie blocking off the north bound traffic for what feels like 30-50% of the time. Tillicum doesn't have that problem as the volume of traffic going from the TC to Interurban or Burnside is much, much lower.

- Often you can't even make it through the green light at Tillicum because the traffic is backed up all the way from McKenzie past Tillicum. The green light at Tillicum is longer than the green light at McKenzie (northbound anyway) because of the left turning issue I described above.

 

The Tillicum intersection should be gone with a proper interchange at McKenzie, IMO. Even if it does stay, the interchange will help a lot because the left turn off of the TC to McKenzie will be gone.

[lanforod]

I think they first need to fix McKenzie, then see the impact on Tillicum. Decide whether to make changes to Tillicum afterwards, ranging from doing nothing, or as little as light timing changes, to closing cross lane traffic, or as far as building an interchange there if needed at that point.

Some traffic will shift from using Tillicum to using McKenzie as it becomes much easier to do so, and that is nearly impossible to measure now.

[Coreyburger]

One key difference between McKenzie and Tillicum: McKenzie from Hwy 1 to Hwy 17 is owned and maintained by the Ministry, while Tillicum is Saanich.

[lanforod]

One key difference between McKenzie and Tillicum: McKenzie from Hwy 1 to Hwy 17 is owned and maintained by the Ministry, while Tillicum is Saanich.

 

Admirals is Saanich though, no? So what is the difference?

[rjag]

Cant fix McKenzie without sorting Tillicum as well. One option would be to simply shut down the intersection completely. This would be a problem for the gas station however.

[nagel]

One key difference between McKenzie and Tillicum: McKenzie from Hwy 1 to Hwy 17 is owned and maintained by the Ministry, while Tillicum is Saanich.

 

Are you sure about this?  Saanich is doing a Complete Streets project on Tillicum right now, and I suggested to them that they fix the Goose crossing at Tillicum and HWY 1 at the same time (the spot that requires cyclists to use the pedestrian islands to cross Tillicum), and they said that the crossing is owned by BC MoT so was out of scope for the project.

Edited by nagel, 05 May 2015 - 10:35 AM.

[Urbanistco]

^

That is my understanding, Highway 1 begins at the Northerly Boundary of the City of Victoria, MoTI's own controlled access documents confirm this. All portions through Saanich are MoTI.

Edited by Urbanistco, 05 May 2015 - 03:03 PM.

[pherthyl]

I don't understand how that interchange could possibly cost $100 million.   The new CARSA building at UVic cost $77 million and it's a 190,000 sqft complex with some complex and state of the art features as well as lots of costly equipment in it.   And yet a bridge and a couple roads costs 25 million more than that?

Edited by pherthyl, 05 May 2015 - 05:11 PM.

[Mike K.]

I don't understand how that interchange could possibly cost $100 million.   The new CARSA building at UVic cost $77 million and it's a 190,000 sqft complex with some complex and state of the art features as well as lots of costly equipment in it.   And yet a bridge and a couple roads costs 25 million more than that?

 

This is going to be the most complicated overpass in the entire CRD. Two clover leafs for sure and the Admirals span will need to be around 100 meters long. Serious stuff for sure.

[sdwright.vic]

Is there a map of the plan for this intersection?

Edited by sdwright.vic, 06 May 2015 - 03:36 PM.

[malahatdrive]

Regarding Tillicum Road:

 

People forget there is actually another existing overpass and (partial) interchange in between McKenzie avenue and Tillicum along the TCH at West Burnside/Interurban.

 

Perhaps they could reroute like this?

 

 

Then they would not need to build another structure at all. Just re-route the cross traffic at Tillicum and the TCH to the West Burnside overpass. No additional structure needed.

Edited by malahatdrive, 06 May 2015 - 03:22 PM.

[malahatdrive]

"The average person does not (cannot??) properly use the acceleration lane to merge north onto the TC which causes further congestion."

 

Problem is it has a busy bike lane going across the start of it and then its just way way too short.

[Mike K.]

It is, it's brutally short.

[sebberry]

Y'all just need faster cars