Langford鈥檚 鈥淏ridge to Nowhere鈥� is still going nowhere, two weeks from its official opening. The overpass at the Trans-sa国际传媒 Highway and Leigh Road has sat like a lonely monument to the economic downturn for five years. After it opens, it will still be a monument 鈥� to Greater Victoria鈥檚 patchwork planning.
On June 15, cars will finally cross the overpass, but they won鈥檛 be able to go very far.
The $25-million interchange was pushed by Langford council and developers in the area to give alternative access to Bear Mountain and main access to proposed developments on South Skirt Mountain. But that road hasn鈥檛 been built, and in the current economic climate, it鈥檚 unlikely to happen for a long time.
Without its primary artery, the Leigh Road interchange will give drivers from Langford access from Leigh Road to the north- and southbound lanes of the Trans-sa国际传媒, as well as to McCallum Road, which parallels the highway to the north and connects to Florence Lake Road. Eventually, McCallum will provide another way to reach Costco and the other big-box-stores, but that connector hasn鈥檛 been built, either.
It鈥檚 a lot of concrete to replace the intersection at Spencer Road, which is essentially all it does at the moment.
Langford Mayor Stew Young says the new interchange will ease congestion on Millstream Road by providing another access point to the highway. It will also remove the congestion that happens on Goldstream Avenue and Spencer Road as drivers use Spencer to head up-Island. The Spencer intersection will be blocked off, allowing access only to the southbound lanes of the Trans-sa国际传媒.
The new access might ease the frustrations of some drivers, but it isn鈥檛 sufficient justification for such a massive expenditure. The project was designed to give access to Bear Mountain and the other developments, not to give some Langford residents another way onto the highway.
If the economy were chugging along the way it was in early 2007, this would make sense. Building would be going ahead on the mountain, and the Bear Mountain Parkway extension would be paved.
The funding plan for the interchange is a good one in that developers pay almost all the cost. The province chipped in $4 million and Langford has approval to borrow up to $25 million; the developers will pay it back once they start selling houses. Until then, the developers are paying the interest costs.
In good times, that would work well. In the current climate, it could be years before the developers start paying down the principal.
Good times or bad, the overpass raises the question of how we decide on traffic priorities in Greater Victoria. Langford is within its rights to throw up an overpass at Leigh Road, but it is not good planning to build interchanges because developers want them, rather than because the region鈥檚 traffic patterns demand them.
The region鈥檚 two least-needed interchanges 鈥� Leigh Road and McTavish Road 鈥� have been built because the money was available from developers or the federal infrastructure program. Meanwhile, drivers and politicians across the south Island are screaming for interchanges at Sayward Road and the Pat Bay Highway, and at McKenzie Avenue and the Trans-sa国际传媒.
Sayward is the most dangerous intersection on the lower Island, and McKenzie鈥檚 contribution to the Trans-sa国际传媒 congestion makes Millstream Road look like a minor inconvenience.
The piecemeal approach to highway planning is turning priorities upside down. Langford residents can think fondly of their expensive new bridge to nowhere, as they are idling in the kilometres-long jam behind the McKenzie intersection.
