The City of Langford’s plan to join Sooke Road to the Trans Canada Highway with a bypass through the western edge of the city is one step closer, with the filing of a recent grant application.
The $24-million plan calls for Westshore Parkway north of the railroad tracks to be extended south over the tracks, connecting it to Langford Parkway at a roundabout, then extending it further south to meet Sooke Road at Awsworth Road. The extension would be built in four simultaneously-constructed sections.
The city is seeking two-thirds of the funding for the project from the New Building Canada Infrastructure Fund. According to Infrastructure Canada, which operates the fund, it supports “projects of national, regional and local significance that promote growth, job creation and productivity.”
The road would include bike lanes along its length, as well as street lighting and sidewalks for the urban areas.
If the application is successful, the grant would also help cover the installation of water, storm water, sanitary sewer and electrical servicing improvements.
According to Michelle Mahovlich, Langford’s director of engineering, the expanded Westshore Parkway would relieve traffic congestion in numerous locations as a “key north-south connector” for the region.
The connector would allow residents of Sooke and Metchosin to avoid the urban areas of Langford and Colwood when travelling to Victoria, by giving more direct access to the Trans Canada Highway, Mahovlich said. It would also allow residents in the Sooke Lake Road and Goldstream areas to avoid the highway when heading to the West Shore, by connecting them to Langford by a different route.
There will be little to no traffic disruption during the construction, Mahovlich said, and noise and other pollution issues will be covered by regional bylaws.
If approved on the currently expected timeline – the deadline for grant applications is mid-February, so they’re hoping for a decision by the end of March – all four sections of the project would go up for tender by this fall, Mahovlich said.
The project is tentatively scheduled for completion by the summer of 2017.