The federal and provincial governments, along with the District of Central Saanich, are investing $43 million to construct a flyover exit for the northbound lanes of the Pat Bay highway at Keating X Road. The is big news and a welcome investment in transportation safety on the Saanich Peninsula.
This project is decades in the making. When I was Central Saanich Council, we organized a corridor study with our neighbours in North Saanich, Saanich, Sidney and Tsawout First Nation to develop a list of priorities for bettering the Pat Bay highway. Since my election in May 2017, I have advocated for the province to prioritize the Keating project on many occasions and have supported the work of my local government colleagues to advance the initiative.
I’ve often spoken of the economic importance of the Saanich Peninsula for the whole Capital Region. People often overlook our contribution to the prosperity of Greater Victoria. We are home to the major connecting points at Swartz Bay and the Victoria International Airport, and we have two vibrant business parks that are the base of the bulk of manufacturing jobs on Southern Vancouver Island.
Transportation spine
The Pat Bay highway is the spine that moves people and products between Victoria and the rest of the world. I am thrilled that the province is fixing the insufficient infrastructure at Keating; however, it is only one part of a much broader vision that we should have for the future of the Pat Bay highway.
We can hardly afford any widening of the highway so the two-lane road needs to support multiple modes of transportation for generations to come. For the most part, the current road is well utilized and we only experience congestion in the morning and afternoon commute. With the Southern Vancouver Island transportation study now underway, I look forward to working with government to use the road we have more efficiently.
As we see with the announcement for the Keating flyover, interchanges are expensive and, in most cases, unnecessary. I’m happy to see in government materials the recent emergence of a bus rapid transit system servicing the Saanich Peninsula. Creating a high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane during rush hour and improving the intersections from Haliburton north to Beacon Avenue to allow for bus stations and priority lanes, much like we see in the northbound lane at Sayward Road, will allow thousands of commuters to transition from their single-occupancy vehicles to a convenient and reliable mass transit system.
The BC Transit future plan proposed this going back to 2011. With increasing tourist traffic to the region, a strong manufacturing and business centre and thousands of people who live on the Saanich Peninsula but work elsewhere in the region (or vice-versa), now is the time to begin planning for the future.
Plan now for the future
With the beginning stages of the transportation planning underway, let’s look at the entire corridor. Starting at the BC Ferries terminal at Swartz Bay, how can we most efficiently, and with the least carbon emissions, move people and goods?
Finally, I believe it’s time for the province to re-consider the Saanich Peninsula Chamber of Commerce’s plan for a modern visitor information centre and truck stop to welcome people the hundreds of thousands of people that visit our region each year.
We are at the beginning of a very exciting time. If we think broadly, we can inclusively develop a 21st century transportation network providing a place for the pedestrian, cyclist, commuter, bus and transport truck without the expense of a half-dozen 20th century concrete interchanges that serve little else than the car-obsessed culture.
Hi Adam, you promised you would keep us up to date on your progress in saving Gardom Pond. We are a small community and we don’t have any highways, so simple things like access to potable water are very important to us. So far I have not heard anything. Am I not on the right mailing list? If that’s the case, please add me.
The pond has been drained and the ecosystem surrounding the pond is now mostly dead. What happens if, as hydrologist William Shulba has suggested, the aquifer collapses and all of the nearby wells fill with saltwater? You say that you take this issue seriously but there’s not a peep of it anywhere publicly from you. It really feels like you just want this to go away. I would have posted this on your Gardom Pond blog post, but there isn’t one.
Thank you Meg. I working through meeting with the various levels of government to discuss the options for water licensing. I can assure that I am still involved in this issue and as we get back into session in October I will continue my work at the provincial level.
Adam, thank you for the chance to comment. In reading your blog about the flyover at Keating X Road I agree that that is one of the priorities for fixing the poor designs of the road between Swartz Bay and Victoria. One thing that is very noticeable is the left turns off that road. Allowing those left turns, in my opinion causes many accidents. That is because many drivers stay in the left lane at a slower speed than the rest of the traffic because a long way down the road they will turn left. That frustrates other drivers and leads to collisions as they change lanes to pass on the right.
The road south from Swartz Bay to Victoria is overloaded every time a ferry comes in. Making people stop at Beacon and wait for a light is not only frustrating, but pollution causing. I would opine that you could legitimately say that there are at least an average of 25 cars at that intersection stopped and idling 24/7/365. Getting rid of that stop light will go a long way to preventing that. I would propose the highway going over a round a bout there.