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Construction begins on Sooke Road priority lanes for buses in Langford

New lanes will allow buses to bypass congestion at Jacklin Road intersection
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A newly-constructed bus stop on Sooke Road gets redone after officials found a fault in its design. (Sooke News Mirror file photo)

Work to get buses moving faster on Sooke Road begins this week and is expected to be complete by summer 2019.

The bus queue jump lane will begin near Jacklin Road in Langford, roughly 100-metres behind the intersection, and will allow buses to bypass congestion and traffic build-up from the intersection.

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The project will also reconfigure the intersection to improve safety and sight lines while increasing the left-hand turning lane capacity from Sooke Road onto Jacklin Road. Crews will have to rebuild sidewalks on the north side of the highway to install a new BC Transit bus stop.

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Costing close to $2 million, the project is part of a suite of upgrades for the Highway 14 corridor. The province announced a series of improvements in January, aimed at making the highway safer and more efficient for drivers, transit users, cyclists and pedestrians.

A number of those improvements have already been completed, including three new bus pullouts on both sides of Highway 14, new safety signs at three locations, a new rest area at Sombrio Beach, new highway line painting, a slow-moving vehicle pullout east of Muir Creek, and a new two-lane bridge on Gillespie Road.

Sooke River Road intersection upgrades are scheduled for completion this summer.

Claire Trevena, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, said the new bus lanes are an added incentive for people to take transit, adding the commitment to priority bus lanes along the Douglas Street corridor will have people spending “less time on the bus stuck in traffic and more time with friends and family.”



kendra.crighton@blackpress.ca

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