Saanich Inlet Bridge

You bypass Duncan and no longer have a need for three BC Ferries routes.
Saltspring Islanders are no longer ferry dependent. and would have better access to the airport.
You would need a much longer bridge from the Peninsula to Mill Bay.

By starting north of Duncan, you'd still have all the Shawnigan/Cobble Hill/Mill Bay commuters on the Malahat. With a quick look at Google Maps, the Mill Bay area bridge wouldn't be more than ~25% longer. And it wouldn't have to be nearly as tall, doesn't need to worry about Chowichan Bay ships.

Shawnigan/Mill Bay/Cobble Hill quite likely make up 50% of the commuters heading south each morning.

You bypass Duncan and no longer have a need for three BC Ferries routes.

Saltspring Islanders are no longer ferry dependent. and would have better access to the airport. 

You would need a much longer bridge from the Peninsula to Mill Bay.

 

Islanders want to be ferry dependent. They do not want bridges. They do not want to live in bedroom communities, otherwise they would have moved to Mill Bay or Cobble Hill.

Edited by jonny, 26 July 2017 - 08:32 AM.

Look, any road to SSI would still have a toll to visit the Island, don't know why they'd be so opposed.

Look, any road to SSI would still have a toll to visit the Island, don't know why they'd be so opposed.

I lived on a gulf island (not Saltspring). Trust me, they would be opposed. If there were tolls then people would simultaneously complain about the high tolls AND all the evils a bridge would bring. And to be fair to them, a bridge would fundamentally change the character of the island.

 

I doubt a bridge to SSI will ever be seriously proposed, but if one were to go ahead you'd have to first arrest 50$ of the island blockading the project.

 

Remember - on Saltspring expanding a coffee roaster was unacceptable to the locals. With that attitude imaging the opposition to a bridge that actually would be a big deal,

Oh yeah, that's a non-starter, for sure. It's also a wildly expensive route.

 

The single-most effective solution is to build a bridge across the inlet from N. Saanich to Mill Bay/Cowichan. That's it.

 

Beef up the 17, make a few improvements to the Malahat, and invest the $1.5-billion needed for a bridge. When all is said and done, that infrastructure project will be far more meaningful, far more important to our transportation grid than a $1.5-billion LRT system to Langford.

Nice and clean, I'd say.

 

^^That's how I see it too, Mike.

^Of the ideas to replace/bypass the Malahat that seems to me to make the most sense. Much better than a new road through the hills.  Still a lot more expensive than just seriously upgrading the existing road (which is also the most probable option).

I think that $1.5Bn is a little fanciful, given the financial history of mega projects in this province..

 

Also, will the bridge solve any problems?  I'd be willing to bet that most* of the peak traffic on the 'Hat is commuters - most* of whom live in Shaw/Mill/Cobble, so how does this bridge help anything?  

 

Lastly, if all of the projections about autonomous vehicles come to pass, then we might well be building redundant infrastructure.

 

 

*usual..

Well, the bridge would land in Bamberton/Mill Bay, so all traffic Mill Bay and north would take the new, faster route.

If you look at a map you'll see my bridge lands just east of Shawnigan Lake. It's a lot further north than most would imagine. Travel time from Shawnigan to the bridge in Cowichan would be about 10 minutes with a proper connection. Maybe even less. Compare that to 40 minutes to travel to View Royal where you suddenly hit traffic and gridlock, if not sooner.

And with a beefed up 17 the travel time to downtown would be sognifacantly faster than a comparable Malahat route.

One issue with the idea is that the West Shore (Langford in particular) is a major destination in itself, not just downtown. The Mahalat would still need to be improved for the many that do the Cowichan to West Shore route.

 

But for getting to Sidney, the Airport and BC Ferries it would be fantastic.

Edited by malahatdrive, 26 July 2017 - 12:39 PM.

The Malahat will become a secondary route and will be perfectly a-ok in that function after this latest round of upgrades (if the bridge is built).

Honestly, we need to hold our politicians accountable for the extremely dangerous situation they continue to force us into. We have a two lane route out of the Capital (at its thinnest points). It can be dangerous in the winters, is often fogged in, and all too often shut down for hours. That's simply unacceptable and in the event of a serious emergency or a need to evacuate the region we're facing the absolute worst possible scenario.

Why would we need to evacuate the region? In the history of the modern first world no city of our size has ever had to evacuate. Except in times of world war.

If we ever have to evacuate it's because of nuclear war, and we will not be returning for a few decades.

Edited by VicHockeyFan, 26 July 2017 - 02:24 PM.

If you look at a map you'll see my bridge lands just east of Shawnigan Lake. It's a lot further north than most would imagine. Travel time from Shawnigan to the bridge in Cowichan would be about 10 minutes with a proper connection. Maybe even less. Compare that to 40 minutes to travel to View Royal where you suddenly hit traffic and gridlock, if not sooner.

And with a beefed up 17 the travel time to downtown would be sognifacantly faster than a comparable Malahat route.

 

Is this a floating bridge? There still needs to be clearance for the ships at the Institute of Ocean Sciences

http://www.pac.dfo-m.../index-eng.html

Why would we need to evacuate the region? In the history of the modern first world no city of our size has ever had to evacuate. Except in times of world war.

If we ever have to evacuate it's because of nuclear war, and we will not be returning for a few decades.

 

Really? New Orleans comes to mind.

Why would we need to evacuate the region? In the history of the modern first world no city of our size has ever had to evacuate. Except in times of world war.

If we ever have to evacuate it's because of nuclear war, and we will not be returning for a few decades.

Major regional earthquake centred somewhere in the CRD, resulting in no power, no water, completely laid to waste infrastructure - with a projected timeline for a fix of a minimum of two to four years ... and the Malahat is impassible, destroyed in the earthquake.

 

75+% of the CRD has to leave the area to continue to live their lives ... but nobody can get out on any roadway, leaving the entire CRD having to evacuate on the B.C. Ferry system ... IF the ferry terminals aren't totally destroyed in the earthquake.

 

If the ferry system AND the Malahat were to be completely incapacitated ... to say we of the CRD are "screwed" would be an understatement.

 

Regardless, as noted above, having a city of near 400,000 dependant on a single two lane bottleneck that leads into a narrow and twisting mountain pass is in and of itself (minus the earthquake) ridiculous.

Even if folks were to be able to remain in Victoria after a disaster, if anything were to simultaneously happen to the ferry terminals and the Malahat ... we CRD types would most definitely be wishing somebody had the foresight to build a bridge!

Edited by Cassidy, 26 July 2017 - 02:46 PM.

The biggest danger is to drivers stuck in 20km long traffic queues. Imagine if a fire started on the Malahat during last Friday and Saturdays boondoggle. Where would people go?

The biggest danger is to drivers stuck in 20km long traffic queues. Imagine if a fire started on the Malahat during last Friday and Saturdays boondoggle. Where would people go?

 

Go fight the fire and get paid to do it.