Calling it a highway that has been neglected for years, Premier John Horgan has confirmed his government will announce preliminary steps this week to improve traffic safety on the road between Langford and Sooke.
Horgan, who represents Langford-Juan de Fuca, said it’s just the start of work on that stretch of Highway 14 — also known as Sooke Road — that’s increasingly busy and overdue for upgrades.
“It’s an area that in my opinion — and I’m biased — has been neglected over the past number of years,” he said.
“It’s the fastest-growing part of Vancouver Island and, take Surrey out of the equation, it’s among the fastest-growing areas in the province, and transportation infrastructure hasn’t kept pace with that.”
Horgan noted the previous Liberal government ordered a review of the corridor.
“That review came to me some months ago and it was inadequate,” he said. “I asked the ministry to go back and look at it again and, of course, since then we’ve had another fatality on the Highway 14 corridor.
“We’re going to be making an announcement later in the week on some preliminary steps for safety improvements and there’ll be much more work done in that corridor.”
Horgan’s comments follow the Dec. 29 death of Sooke resident Drew Ripley on Sooke Road near Parkland Road, and recent calls by the region’s mayors for immediate action to fix the highway.
“It’s been talked about longer than I’ve been a politician,” Langford Mayor Stew Young told the Times Colonist last week. “And I think that they do need to make those improvements right away.”
Sooke Mayor Maja Tait said Tuesday that Horgan’s constituency office notified her about the upcoming announcement, but provided no other details.
“It’s very exciting news,” she said. “We have been waiting a long time and a lot of people have said: ‘Can you just get on with it!’
“It’s just getting busier and, with the weather, it just makes it to be a challenging drive for so many of our residents and visitors. I’m looking forward to the announcement.”
The Insurance Corp. of B.C. documented 1,275 crashes on Sooke Road between Veterans Memorial Parkway in Colwood and Sooke River Road in Sooke from 2006 to 2015.
Carter Navarrete, 17, died in a crash near the intersection of Sooke Road and Parkland Road in 2016. Carter’s parents have called for safety improvements to the highway, and Horgan said he’s intent on making that happen.
“I’m committed, as I have been since I was first elected in 2005, to make sure that transportation within and around the West Shore area out to Sooke is as safe as it can possibly be,” he said.
The transportation ministry said in a statement that its study of the Highway 14 corridor initially found a number of safety and transit improvements that could be made in the next year or two.
“However, we found that the review did not go far enough — especially considering the increasing populations of Langford and Sooke,” the ministry said. “So, the ministry is going to take this report a step further, looking at new ways to make travel along Highway 14 safer, more reliable, and more efficient.”
In addition, the ministry expanded the study to go beyond Langford and Sooke and examine the transportation corridor all the way to Port Renfrew.
— With files from Jeff Bell
