2241 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

an “inland” alternate sooke highway is real easy.

[shoeflack]

an “inland” alternate sooke highway is real easy.

I believe the MoTI has already released such a proposed alignment. Or a couple options anyways.

[Bingo]

It's that time again on the Malahat.

 

The province requires passenger vehicles be equipped with winter tires between Oct. 1 and March 31 on many rural highways and high mountain passes in the Interior, North and Vancouver Island. 

Look for the snowflake or M+S

Winter tires — sometimes called alpine or snow tires — are marked with a symbol of a snowflake inside a three-peaked mountain placed on the sidewall of the tire.

Mud and snow tires, marked with an M+S symbol, also qualify as winter tires, though the Ministry of Transportation notes they are less effective than dedicated alpine snow tires.

The ministry requires winter tires to have at least 3.5 millimetres of tread remaining. It requires at least two matching winter tires on the vehicle's drive axle, but recommends a matching set on all wheels.

While winter tires are not required on highways in the Lower Mainland, they are required on much of the Sea-to-Sky Highway, as well as routes north and east of Hope. 

https://www.cbc.ca/n...4844904?cmp=rss

[Bingo]

Engineering work is scheduled to start early in 2019 and will explore building an additional 1.5 kilometres of median barriers north of the West Shore Parkway to just north of Finlayson Arm Road, the province said in a news release Sunday.

 Premier John Horgan said the province will continue to look at options to keep traffic moving when accidents occur on the Malahat/Goldstream section of the highway.

 

Ministry of Transportation staff have been directed to explore the viability of a second route around the Malahat in case of an emergency, according to the news release. The ministry is analyzing the scope, location and size of a potential emergency route.

https://www.timescol...park-1.23447618

 

[On the Level]

I'm not sure how the divider would fit in that section......and what does it buy us at that cost?  The cost of extending the width of highway 5 feet on the mountain side would be astronomical.  I can only assume this analysis is being done to bolster the argument to push a route through the west side though the side of the watershed.

 

Since there were crickets on my post of the reported cost of a bridge from the peninsula side earlier in this thread, I can only assume we all believe that option is a financial unicorn.

[RFS]

 I can only assume this analysis is being done to bolster the argument to push a route through the west side though the side of the watershed.

 

Why would the existence of an additional emergency route affect the need for median barriers?

[Mike K.]

The Malahat upgrades are now completed and traffic is flowing along the newly improved roadway.

[snub]

Friday Night Funnies;

 

Must have been a slow day for news at the Goldstream Gazette.

 

 

Alternative highway plan to the Malahat looking to gain traction

Pat Clements detailed a 50-year transportation network in three stages

 

Langford resident Pat Clements is sharing his idea for an alternative highway route to the Malahat.

He details a 50-year plan in three stages, including moving the Swartz Bay ferry terminal and eventually a Vancouver Island and Lower Mainland connector.

“For the safety, the direction of this plan would be better for people on the Island,” he said. “To re-do the Malahat doesn’t do any good to the ferry terminal.”

The alternative highway proposal would see traffic from Greater Victoria directed along the Pat Bay Highway to the tip of the Saanich Peninsula, with a bridge across to Salt Spring Island. The highway would follow a bridge network from Salt Spring, back across the Sansum narrows, continuing west of Maple Bay and joining the Trans-Canada Highway south of the Crofton turn off.

 

 

https://www.goldstre...-gain-traction/

 

[Bingo]

Friday Night Funnies;

Must have been a slow day for news at the Goldstream Gazette.

 

Alternative highway plan to the Malahat looking to gain traction

Pat Clements detailed a 50-year transportation network in three stages

Langford resident Pat Clements is sharing his idea for an alternative highway route to the Malahat.

https://www.goldstre...-gain-traction/

 

I proposed this alternate route to the Malahat  eons ago.

here;https://vibrantvicto...e-4#entry394242

[On the Level]

Interesting option but how is Saltspring going to react to a highway running through it?  Same with Maple Bay.

 

The newspaper article doesn't mention anything about the Pat Bay Highway upgrades that would be needed as identified in the Stantec study.

[Nparker]

...how is Saltspring going to react to a highway running through it?...

Simple: they'd fight to the death to prevent it from happening. Bridging the Gulf Islands is a non-starter. Anyone who suggests otherwise really hasn't a clue about local demographics.

[Bingo]

Let's face it there really isn't a cheap way of building an alternate route for avoiding the Malahat, and whatever is decided there will be opposition to it, just like pipelines for oil, or pipelines to run sewage all over the CRD just to get it treated.

[DustMagnet]

Simple: they'd fight to the death to prevent it from happening. Bridging the Gulf Islands is a non-starter. Anyone who suggests otherwise really hasn't a clue about local demographics.

Not going to name names, but there is someone in municipal politics that should they move into provincial politics could make it happen regardless of what anyone thinks. 

[Nparker]

Aside from little public support, bridging the Gulf Islands would also be very expensive. Successive governments have shown a fairly significant lack of interest in expensive infrastructure projects on Vancouver Island. It has taken nearly a full generation since the last major island highway investment to see something even on the moderate scale of the McKenzie interchange. The cost of any sort of bridge project as an alternate to the Malahat would make the McKenzie expenditure look like pocket change. I doubt very much any one politician is going to make it happen.

[Nparker]

Not going to name names, but there is someone in municipal politics that should they move into provincial politics could make it happen regardless of what anyone thinks. 

Stew Young? I doubt he has that kind of clout on a provincial level.

[DustMagnet]

Stew Young? I doubt he has that kind of clout on a provincial level.

Uh, yeah... not him.

[Cassidy]

There will never be a bridge built to any Gulf Island - for any purpose.

[FogPub]

^ Which is kinda sad, really; if nothing else there's some fairly short spans between some of the islands themselves, and linking them together would mean fewer ferry docks and thus better/more frequent service.....maybe...?

[Cassidy]

^ Which is kinda sad, really; if nothing else there's some fairly short spans between some of the islands themselves, and linking them together would mean fewer ferry docks and thus better/more frequent service.....maybe...?

Pretty much every single resident Gulf Islander would lay their bodies down under threat of death to stop any sort of bridge construction.

A bridge (any bridge) is the antithesis of why Gulf Islanders moved to the Islands in the first place.

And without residents support, the nature of a bridge project anywhere in the Southern Gulf is simply impossible ... thus my comment above.

 

But the talk of bridges to solve the Malahat issue is perhaps a bit much anyway, especially in light of the multiple land highway options that are available to be explored ... likely for tens of millions of dollars less than any sort of "sea link" (with the possible exception of an actual ferry from Sidney to Cowichan Bay).

[Nparker]

...A bridge (any bridge) is the antithesis of why Gulf Islanders moved to the Islands in the first place...

This.