Drivers looking for congestion relief on the Millstream overpass will have a longer wait following the City of Langford’s announcement that improvements have been delayed until next spring.
Construction on an additional southbound left-turn lane for the Trans Canada Highway and improvements to increase pedestrian and cyclist safety were slated to begin this summer, but the City received just a single bid when the project was tendered earlier this month.
The lone bid came in 25 per cent over the project’s budget.
Director of engineering Michelle Mahovlich cited a busy construction season as the reason for a lack of bidders.
“Even in our own city we have a lot of road work underway with contractors keeping busy and you combine that with all of the other municipalities trying to do work and all of the housing (projects) going on right now, it’s hard to find contractors,” she said.
“I know we’re not the only municipality encountering this.”
The silver-lining for North Langford residents and businesses, as well as multitudes of shoppers, is that both the West Shore Parkway and Bear Mountain Parkway projects will be completed by the time the Millstream project eventually gets underway, which should alleviate congestion during the construction period.
West Shore Parkway, a 3.5 km stretch connecting the Trans-Canada Highway with Sooke Road east of Langford Lake, remains on track to open this summer.
The Bear Mountain Parkway project will connect the Leigh Road and McCallum Road intersection with the roundabout at Country Club Way, a roughly 3.3 km route, and is slated for completion sometime this fall.
joel.tansey@goldstreamgazette.com
Twitter: @joelgazette
