Traffic along McKenzie Avenue between Cedar Hill Road and Shelbourne Avenue will go down to one lane in each direction for three straight nights starting Wednesday night.
Harley Machielse, Saanich’s director of engineering, said crew will be milling almost 200 metres of McKenzie Avenue between Cedar Hill Road and Shelbourne Avenue Wednesday night, starting at 7 p.m
Milling grinds up the top surface of the road in preparation for paving. Depending on weather, paving will happen Thursday night and Friday night, starting at 7 p.m. and finishing at 7 a.m the next day, said Machielse. Rain could force Saanich to change this schedule, he added.
The work on McKenzie is part of a larger project that upgrades McKenzie Avenue by resurfacing a section of the road and improving the local network of cycling lanes.
The resurfacing covers the stretch of McKenzie Avenue from Long Gun Place to Shelbourne Street, said Machielse. Crews completed the portion between Long Gun Place and Cedar Hill Road last week, he said.
Crews also constructed a one-directional cycling track and a concrete sidewalk between Shelbourne Street and Cedar Hill Road that completes a missing link in the local network that connects the north-south running Lochside Regional Trail with the University of Victoria.
The total value of the project is around $1 million, said Machielse
Saanich has received complaints about the project and its impact on traffic, but Machielse could not offer precise figures. “Compared to other projects, there has been very good understanding and acceptance from the public,” he said. “I would not characterize it as a high volume of complaints,” he said.
Machielse said Saanich has tried to minimize interruptions by doing the work overnight and fitting the different parts of the project into the same window.
“I think the public has been very patient as we are completing this important infrastructure and we continue to thank the public for their patience,” he said.
