The B.C. government is looking at ways to end gridlock on the Malahat during major crashes, and will consider ferries, bridges and new roads as options for an emergency detour route.
Mitzi Dean, MLA for Esquimalt-Metchosin, said nothing is off the table as the Ministry of Transportation embarks on a new strategy, announced Wednesday, aimed at improving traffic flow on southern Vancouver Island.
Frustrated motorists — who are sometimes stranded for hours during shutdowns — have called for an alternate route. In the event of a crash, some drivers take the 260-kilometre Pacific Marine Circle Route, which connects Lake Cowichan and Port Renfrew. But the old logging road is narrow and riddled with potholes and parts of it were flooded during last week’s heavy rains.
The Ministry of Transportation said a study on the feasibility of a temporary emergency detour route is expected to be ready by spring. If a suitable route is identified, engineering work could begin in the summer.
The ministry will work with the Capital Regional District to explore all options, and Dean said consideration will be given to environmental concerns and First Nations and community interests.
The new strategy will also look at infrastructure projects for other modes of transportation, including ferries, rail, cars, transit, walking and cycling.
“We need to be encouraging people to use a variety of ways of getting around, and those methods need to be safe,” Dean said.
In May, Premier John Horgan, whose riding of Langford-Juan de Fuca includes the Malahat, floated the possibility of a bridge across the Saanich Inlet as an alternative. He made the comments after a section of the Trans-Canada Highway at Goldstream Provincial Park was shut down for 14 hours when a fuel truck collided with a courier van.
Chris Foord, vice-chairman of the Capital Regional District Traffic Safety Commission and a transportation planner, said what is needed is an emergency bypass that could be opened up when the highway is closed for two hours or more. “To me, that would make eminent logical sense and economic sense.”
Foord dismisses the Mill Bay-Brentwood Bay ferry as a viable alternative, saying it doesn’t have the capacity to deal with the volume of traffic on the Malahat.
“It’s like trying to pour concrete from a thimble,” he said.
Foord calls the Malahat a 352-metre “engineering mole hill” that can be worked around with the right infrastructure design and investment.
“It is a barrier awaiting an engineering solution,” he said. “If we were in Norway, there would probably already be a bridge across the Finlayson Arm. If we were in Denmark, they’d bore a tunnel right through the Malahat and think nothing of it.”
The Malahat — and the approach that winds through Goldstream park — is the “most substandard section of the Trans-Canada Highway,” he said, adding he hates to think that his grandchildren will be driving “that same godawful stretch of highway that I’m driving now.”
Transportation Minister Claire Trevena acknowledged that the traffic challenges have been ignored, even as the region’s population has grown.
“We know that southern Vancouver Island is one of the fastest-growing regions in the province,” Trevena said.
“For too long, the infrastructure needs of the communities there have been ignored.”
Mike Hicks, CRD director for the Juan de Fuca electoral area, which includes the Malahat, is in favour of widening the single-lane bridges along the Pacific Marine Circle Route to improve traffic flow in the event of a detour. The provincial government should also invest in communication towers to bring cellphone coverage to the area, he said.
Hicks is adamant that a new road not be built through the watershed that feeds the Sooke Reservoir.
The Sooke Water Supply Area, located in CRD-owned land in the Sooke hills, supplies water to more than 350,000 people in the region. Hicks said the water is so pristine, it does not need to be filtered or treated.
“It just takes a fuel tanker on the road to roll over and the fuel leaches into the water,” he said.
The Island Corridor Foundation maintains that the E&N Rail corridor, which runs from Victoria to Courtenay, could be utilized to reduce congestion on the highway. The foundation is planning a detailed condition assessment of all track and bridges on the 225-kilometre corridor.
Dean said rail is an option for getting people out of cars and reducing congestion.
“We know people are frustrated at seeing that corridor being left idle while people are sitting in congestion and traffic,” she said. “And so what I hear strongly is we want to get the best use out of that corridor. If we can use that corridor to get people moving, let’s look at that option.”
Adam Olsen, B.C. Green Party spokesman for transportation and infrastructure, said the transportation strategy is an important part of a long-term plan for the future.
“One of the things we have to consider [is that] when we build bigger highways, we create more congestion,” he said. “This idea of putting a focus on multi-modal [transportation] and trying to shift some of the behaviours, that’s something we should focus on.”
Through B.C. Bid, the government will build a short-list of three qualified consultants to design a “multi-modal transportation plan” for the region.
The successful consultant will be selected by the end of March.
The ministry will also award a contract to design median barriers for a 1.5-kilometre stretch of the highway from West Shore Parkway through Goldstream park to just north of Finlayson Arm Road.
Two drivers were seriously injured Wednesday after their vehicles collided head-on just south of West Shore Parkway. However, no barriers are planned for that section.
The province has spent $34 million on safety improvements in the Malahat Village area. That work included four-laning five kilometres of highway and installing three kilometres of median barriers. Sixty-five per cent of the highway now has median barriers.
The Malahat is shut down an average of once a month due to a serious crash, according to the Ministry of Transportation.
