Plans for a new highway linking Port Alberni to Highway 19 via Horne Lake struck a dead end Tuesday when Transportation Minister Todd Stone rejected the project as too expensive.
Stone said a study of the proposed Horne Lake connector concluded that the cost of building and maintaining the route outweighs any expected benefits to travellers.
The province will focus instead on upgrades and safety improvements to the existing Highway 4 corridor, he said.
A business case study prepared for government concluded that it would cost about $92 million to build a new route north from Highway 4 around Horne Lake to link with Highway 19.
The same study concluded that a $24-million investment in upgrades and safety improvements to Highway 4 would reap comparable benefits.
The study also found that only about eight per cent of motorists would save time by using the new route, said Janelle Erwin, regional deputy director with the ministry.
The announcement came as a blow to Alberni Valley officials who have long promoted the Horne Lake route as a way to open up the region’s economy and improve safety for residents.
“We don’t have any way out except the one,” said Port Alberni Coun. Jack McLeman. “There’s 30,000-odd people between here and the west coast that have no other way out.”
He referred to the planned upgrades as a “Band-Aid solution to Highway 4 [that] is going to do nothing” for a route that is sometimes blocked by vehicle crashes.
Stone said the planned improvements to the existing Highway 4 corridor include:
• safety improvements at the Cathedral Grove tourist stop;
• extension of the westbound passing lane near “The Hump” in Port Alberni;
• addition of a westbound acceleration lane for drivers exiting Highway 19 and merging onto Highway 4.
Port Alberni Mayor Mike Ruttan expressed disappointment at the decision to reject a second route. He also urged caution when proceeding with upgrades at Cathedral Grove.
“That needs to be done extremely sensitively because those trees are public property,” he said. “It’s iconic, never to be replaced, and we have to make sure that we don’t endanger any of the trees that are there in order to accommodate the people that want to visit.”
B.C. NDPMLA Scott Fraser, who represents the area, said the project has been heavily studied and the ministry claims that its traffic numbers don’t warrant a new route at present.
“It’s a big expense and I think more than the capital cost, the ministry is concerned about how will it maintain two highways to a standard that’s acceptable,” he said.
