Katelynne Miller, 18, uses the crosswalk at Spencer Road to cross the Trans Canada Highway every day to attend classes at West Shore Learning Centre on Goldstream Avenue and to go to a nearby gym.
On June 15 she will have to find a new route when the crosswalk closes at the same time as the Leigh Road interchange opens.
“It’s sure going to be a hassle,” Miller said. “I’ll probably have to use the Millstream overpass.”
The new route will add about 20 minutes to her daily commute.
“It’s already taking me about 15 minutes to walk to school and half an hour to get to the gym,” she said.
The City of Langford is looking into adding an overpass at Spencer Road for pedestrians and bicycles, but that would cost $2 million the city doesn’t have in the budget.
“We are pretty confident it will be used and we will be looking for money from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure,” said Michelle Mahovlich, Langford director of engineering.
While it’s “a lot of money” Miller said, “they will still need to build it.”
A preliminary drawing of the potential overpass has been created.
“It would be a fully accessible overpass,” Mahovlich explained.
Until the overpass is built, pedestrians and cyclists will need to cross the highway at either Millstream or Leigh.
The Leigh Road interchange is slated to open at 6 p.m. on June 15.
“It was a quieter night to open without weekday commuters,” Mahovlich said. “We also didn’t want to open it right before the Canada Day (June 30) weekend.”
Traffic patterns in the area will change with vehicles unable to cross the intersection of Spencer Road and the TCH.
“A barrier will be placed across the road to the highway,” Mahovlich said.
The traffic signal at the intersection will be deactivated and the three ramps at the Leigh Road interchange will open.
People used to making left turns off Spencer Road to the highway heading up-Island will now have to use Leigh Road to access the highway.
At the end of May or early June the intersection at Goldstream Avenue and Leigh Road will become a four-way stop, but there will be a non-stop flow from Goldstream to Leigh Road.
A fourth ramp proposed for the intersection has no timeline scheduled for it. When it is eventually added, access to Goldstream Avenue, near West Shore Parkway, will be permanently closed.
The interchange cost $25 million paid for primarily by five private developers on Bear Mountain and South Skirt Mountain. The province is also chipping in $4 million while the municipality is not putting any cash into the project.
“It’s the biggest capital project for Langford. The arena and bowling alley cost $15 million,” Mahovlich said.
See the traffic flow map online at www.vicnews.com or www.cityoflangford.ca.
charla@goldstreamgazette.com
